SAN  DIEGO_ 


Utibrarg* 


LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


EUROPEAN    LIBRARY. 


Volumes  already  Published: 

EOSCOE'S  LIFE  OF  LORENZO  DE'  MEDICI,  CALLED  THE  MAGNI- 
FICENT. One  Volume. 

GUIZOT'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  REVOLUTION  OF  1040 

FROM  THE  ACCESSION  TO  THE  DEATH  OF  CHARLES  I.      One  Volume. 

DUMAS'  MARGUERITE  DE  VALOIS:  an  Historical  Romance  of  the 
time  of  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew.  One  Volume. 

ROSCOE'S  LIFE  AND  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  X.  Edited  by 
WILLIAM  HAZLITT,  ESQ.  Two  Volumes. 

LIFE  OF  LUTHER:  written  by  Himself.  Collected  and  arranged  by 
M.  MICHELET;  with  Copious  Selections  from  his  Table  Talk.  One 
Volume. 

J5»    The  above  are  the  only  Editions  of  ROSCOE'S  HISTORICAL  "WOBKS  in  which  the 
Latin,  Italian,  and  Old  French  Notes  are  translated. 


London,  D.  Bo ^ue,  86.  Fleet  Street. 


THE 


LITERARY    HISTORY 


OF    THE 


MIDDLE   AGES: 


COMPKEJIENDJKG 


AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  STATE  OF  LEARNING, 


Close  of  tf»c  Bdgn  of  Augustus, 


ITS    REVIVAL   IX    THE   FIFTEENTH    CENTURY. 


REV.  JOSEPH   BERINGTOX. 


LONDON: 
DAVID    BOGUE,    FLEET     STREET. 

MDCCCXLVI. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICE  OF  THE  AUTHOR. 


THE  REV.  JOSEPH  BERINGTON  was   an   ecclesiastic  of  the 
Romish  church,  conspicuous  in  his  day  for  advocating  mode- 
rate views  of  her  peculiar  doctrines.    He  was  born  in  Shrop- 
shire, of  Catholic  parents,  in  the  year  1743,  and  was  sent  at 
an  early  age  to  the  college  of  St.  Omer.    Having  fulfilled  the 
ordinary  course  of  studies  there,  with  great  credit  to  himself, 
he  was  ordained  a  minister  of  the  Roman-catholic  church,  and 
exercised  the  functions  of  the  priesthood  for  several  years  in 
France.     He  then  returned  to  his  native  country,  and  pur- 
sued with  great  industry  and  integrity  the  career  of  letters, 
upon  which,  indeed,  he  had  already  entered  while  in  France, 
having  first  appeared  before  the  world  as  author,  in  1776,  in 
the  shape  of  a  Letter  on  Materialism  and  on  Hartley's  Theory 
of  the  Human  Mind.     Three  years  afterwards,  he  published 
Immaterialism  Delineated  ;   or  a  View  of  the  First  Prin- 
ciples of  Things.     In  the  same  year  he  sent  forth  a  Letter 
to   Fordyce   on   his    Sermon  on  the   Delusive   and   Perse- 
cuting  Spirit  of  Popery.     In  the  next  year  appeared  his 
State  and  Behaviour  of  English  Catholics  from  the  Reforma- 
tion till  1780.     In  1786,  he  came  forward  with  An  Address 
to  the  Protestant  Dissenters  who  have  lately  Petitioned  for  a 
Repeal  of  the  Corporation  and  Test  Acts.     In  the  following 
year  he  published  the  History  of  Abailard  and  Heloise,  with 
their   Genuine   Letters.      A   second   edition  of  this   work 


VI  BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE    OF    THE    AUTHOR. 

appeared  in  1789.  In  1787,  also,  Berington  published 
Reflections,  with  an  Exposition  of  Roman-catholic  Principles, 
in  reference  to  God  and  the  Country  ;  and  other  tracts 
followed  closely  upon  this.  In  1790,  he  published  in  quarto 
a  History  of  Henry  II.  and  his  Two  Sons,  vindicating  the 
character  of  a  Becket  from  Lord  Lyttleton's  attacks.  In  1 793, 
appeared  a  more  important  work,  entitled,  Memoirs  of  Gre- 
gorio  Panzani,  giving  an  account  of  his  Agency  in  England 
in  the  years  1634-5-6,  translated  from  the  Italian  original, 
and  now  first  published.  As  Panzani's  objects  were  both  the 
reconcilement  of  differences  between  the  Romish  seculars  and 
regulars  in  England,  and  to  obtain  permission  for  the  settle- 
ment of  a  Romish  bishop,  his  attention  was  much  directed  to 
the  oaths  required,  and  he  was  favourable  to  some  middle 
course,  offering  a  prospect  of  satisfying  the  existing  govern- 
ment. Many  Romanists  were  displeased  at  seeing  evidence 
published  of  such  a  disposition  in  a  papal  agent;  and  Charles 
Plowden,  a  clerical  member  of  their  body,  published  Remarks 
on  Berington's  publication,  calling  in  question  the  authenticity 
of  Panzani's  Memoirs. 

The  work,  of  which  the  present  volume  is  a  reprint,  and 
which  ha^  been  on  all  hands  admitted  to  be  the  best  account 
extant  of  the  important  subject  to  which  it  refers,  appeared 
in  1814.  In  the  same  year,  Mr.  Berington  settled  at  Buck- 
land,  in  Berkshire,  where  he  died  in  1 820,  according  to  the 
Biographic  Universelle ;  in  1827,  according  to  the  more 
authoritative  statement  in  Rose's  General  Biographical 
Dictionary,  to  which  valuable  work  I  am  indebted  for  the 
principal  materials  of  the  present  sketch.  An  ample  index  to 
the  volume  is  now  for  the  first  time  supplied. 

W.  HAZLITT. 
Middle  Temple,  May  1,  1846. 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK    I. 

VIEW  OF  TOE  DECLINE  OF  LITERATURE  AND  THE  ARTS, 
FROM  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  AUGUSTUS,  TO  THE 
FALL  OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE,  IN  476. 

Sketch  of  the  state  of  letters  iu  the  Augustan  age — The  causes  of  their 
rise  briefly  examined — First  period  of  their  decline — Second  period — 
Third  period — Decline  of  eloquence — of  poetry — of  history — of  philo 
sophy,  &c. — The  state  of  the  libraries — Decline  of  the  polite  arts — The 
state  of  literature  in  Italy  and  iu  the  distant  provinces — The  causes  of 
the  decline  of  literature  and  the  arts — Was  literature  affected  by  the 
establishment  of  Christianity  ? — The  state  of  Grecian  literature  during 
the  same  period --p.  1 


BOOK  II. 

VIEW  OF  THE  FALLEN  STATE  OF  LITERATURE  AND  THE 
ARTS,  FROM  THE  FALL  OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE,  IN 
476,  TO  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  CHARLE- 
MAGNE, IN  774. 

Settlements  of  the  barbarous  nations — in  Italy — in  Spain — iu  Gaul — in 
Africa — in  Germany — iu  Britain — the  Huns — Deflections  on  the  cha- 
racter of  the  Goths — General  outline  of  the  times — State  of  learning  in 
Italy  during  the  Gothic  reign — Disastrous  state  of  Italy — Reign  of  the 
Lombards — State  of  learning — The  end  of  the  Lombard  government — 
French  writers — Spanish  writers — Germany — The  state  of  England — 
Bede — The  works  principally  read  iu  the  schools p.  (il 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 


BOOK  III. 

STATE  OF  LEARNING  FROM  THE  REIGN  OF  CHARLEMAGNE, 
A.D.  774,  TO  THE  END  OF  THE  TENTH  CENTURY. 

Dispositions  of  Charlemagne  in  regard  to  letters — Flattering  prospect  at 
the  opening  of  the  ninth  century — Why  no  success  followed — The  last 
years  of  Charlemagne — Alcuin,  Paul  Wamefrid  and  Eginhavd — The 
successors  of  Charlemagne — State  of  learning  in  Borne,  and  in  other 
parts  of  the  empire — General  licentiousness — Conversion  of  barbarous 
nations — Rabanus  Maurus — John  Erigena — The  use  of  theological 
controversies — Alfred — Flattering  statement  of  Muratori — Ireland — The 
tenth  century :  a  general  view — The  monks  not  assiduously  employed — 
The  reigns  of  the  Othos  —  Literature  of  England  —  Sj.  Dunstan — 
Gerbert,  afterwards  Sylvester  II.  ......  -  p.  100 

BOOK  IV. 

STATE     OF     LEARNING    AND     THE     ARTS     IN     THE     ELEVENTH 
AND    TWELFTH    CENTURIES. 

The  eleventh  century — The  Roman  church  :-Leo  IX.— The  Norman  settlers 
in  Italy — Its  language  affected  by  them — Gregory  VII. — The  fictitious 
donation  of  Constantine — No  change  in  the  state  of  learning — Peter 
Damianus — The  character  of  the  poets  and  historians — Bologna 
and  Salerno — State  of  France — The  Normans :  their  character — 
Laufranc  —  Political  state  of  England  —  The  Norman  Conquest — 
Ingulph,  abbot  of  Croyland — Anselm — Eadmer:  his  credulity,  and  that 
of  the  age — The  Crusades — Twelfth  century — Increased  intercourse 
•with  Rome :  its  effects — New  monastic  orders — St.  Bernard — Scholas- 
ticism introduced — Peter  Abailard — Peter  the  Lombard — England — 
Oxford — Cambridge — English  historians — John  of  Salisbury— Peter  de 
Blois — Architecture  and  other  arts  -  •  .  p.  145 


BOOK  V. 

STATE    OF    LEARNING    IN    THE    THIRTEENTH    CENTURY. 

Thirteenth   century — Formation  of  modern  languages — The   romane  or 
romance  language — Trouveurs  and  troubadours — The  state   of  other 


CONTENTS.  XI 

countries — Italy — Conduct  of  the  Roman  bishops — Universities — Other 
crussules — And  other  monastic  institutions — Divines  and  philosophers  : 
Thomas  Aquinas — St.  Bonaventure — Albertus  Magnus — Roger  Bacon — 
Robert  Grosteste — The  various  fortunes  of  Aristotle — Historians — 
Italian  —  Matthew  Paris  —  Poetry  —  Saxon  and  English  language — 
Its  poetry  —  Latin  poetry  —  Introduction  of  rhymes  —  Grammar  and 
rhetoric p.  224 


BOOK  VI. 

STATE  OF  LEARNING  FROM  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  FOUR- 
TEENTH CENTURY,  TO  THE  INVENTION  OF  THE  ART  OF 
PRINTING,  ABOUT  THE  YEAR  1450. 

The  Fourteenth  century — The  poet  Dante — State  of  Italy — Petrarca — His 
researches  after  the  works  of  the  ancients — Character  of  his  writings — 
Boccaccio — C'oluccio  Salutato — The  learning  of  other  countries — Duns 
Scotus— John  Wicklifl' — Geoffrey  Chaucer — His  acquirements  compared 
with  those  of  others,  and  his  success  with  that  of  Petrarca  and  Boc- 
caccio— French  literature — Froissard — Spanish  and  German:  why  sta- 
tionary— Fifteenth  century — General  view  of  Italy — Council  of  Constance 
— Martin  V. — Councils  of  Basil  and  Florence — Nicholas  V. — The  en- 
thusiasm of  many  Italians  in  quest  of  Latin  authors — Progress  of  the 
Greek  language — Cardinal  Bessariou — Various  professors — Greek  works 
— Gianozzi  Manetti — Cultivated  state  of  the  Latin  language — State  of 
other  countries  —  Oxford  and  Cambridge  —  Antiquarian  researches  — 
"What  obstacles  still  remained — The  art  of  printing  discovered  -  p.  227 

APPENDIX.— No.  I. 

ON  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS,  FROM  THE  SIXTH  CEN- 
TURY, TO  THE  FALL  OF  THE  EASTERN  EMPIRE,  IN  1453. 

Sixth  century — The  reign  of  Justinian — The  effects  of  theological  contro- 
versies— Triboniau  and  Procopius,  &c. — The  learning  of  Justinian — His 
t  aste  for  building — Saint  Sophia — The  Seventh  Century  — State  of  things 
under  Heraclius — A  new  controversy — Few  writers  of  any  note — Eighth 
century — Icouoclasm — Low  state  of  learning — St.  John  Damascene — 
The  ninth  century  more  auspicious  to  learning — The  Patriarch  Nice- 
phorus — Attempts  of  Michael  the  Stammerer — Bardas  favours  the  cause 
of  letters — Photius — His  principal  works — The  Emperors  Basil  and  Leo 

A 


CONTENTS. 

— Tenth  century — Constantine  Porphyrogenitus — Simeon  Metaphrastes 
— Suidas — The  embassy  of  Lintprand — Eleventh  century — State  of  the 
empire — Michael  Psellus — Alexius  Comnenus — The  first  crusade — 
Twelfth  century — John  Comnenus — John  Zonaras — Nicephorus  Bryeu- 
nius — Anna  Comnena — Manuel  Comnenus — Second  crusade — Manuel 
fond  of  controversy — Eustathius,  the  commentator  of  Homer — Athenseus 
— John  Tzetzes — The  closing  events  of  the  century — Thirteenth  cen- 
tury— Constantinople  taken  by  the  Latins — Monuments  of  art  destroyed 
— The  effects  of  the  capture  on  learning — Good  conduct  of  the  expelled 
princes — Nicetas  and  other  writers — State  of  the  Greek  empire  after  its 
restoration — Fourteenth  century — Literary  character  of  Andronicus — 
Theodorus  Metochita — John  Cantacuzenus — Nicephorus  Gregorus — A 
curious  controversy — Progress  of  the  Turks — Greek  anthologies — 
Fifteenth  century — The  question  of  union  hetween  the  churches — 
Council  of  Ferrara  and  Florence — The  Greeks  return  from  Florence — 
Fall  of  the  Eastern  empire — Its  three  last  historians — State  of  the  Greek 
language  -  -  -  .  p.  348 


APPENDIX.— No.  II. 

ON    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

General  view — The  Saracens  establish  themselves  in  Africa  and  Spain — 
They  encourage  letters — Their  grammar — Eloquence — Poetry — Philo- 
logy— Lexicographers — Philosophy — Ethics  and  asceticism — Medicine 
— Natural  history — Mathematics — Geography — History — The  fall  of 
Granada,  the  last  Moorish  settlement — And  of  the  caliphate — The  three 
Arabian  historians — Conclusion ...  p.  412 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES. 


BOOK    I. 

VIEW  OF  THE  DECLINE  OF  LITERATURE  AND  THE  ARTS, 
FROM  THE  CLOSE  OP  THE  REIGN  OF  AUGUSTUS,  TO  THE 
FALL  OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE,  IN  476. 


Sketch  of  the  state  of  letters  in  the  Augustan  age — The  causes  of  their 
rise  briefly  examined — First  period  of  their  decline — Second  period — 
Third  period — Decline  of  eloquence — Of  poetry — Of  history — Of  philo  • 
sophy,  &c. — The  state  of  the  libraries — Decline  of  the  polite  arts —  The 
state  of  literature  in  Italy  and  in  the  distant  provinces — The  causes  of 
the  decline  of  literature  and  the  arts — Was  literature  affected  by  the 
establishment  of  Christianity  ? — The  state  of  Grecian  literature  during 
the  same  period. 

THE  subject  which  I  have  proposed  to  treat  in  the  present 
work  is  so  extensive  in  itself,  that  I  am  unwilling  to  increase 
its  bulk  with  any  matter  which  is  foreign  to  my  purpose,  or 
not  essentially  incorporated  in  the  plan  which  I  have  at- 
tempted to  execute.  I  shall  not  therefore  delineate  the  golden 
period  of  Roman  literature,  from  the  fall  of  Carthage  to  the 
death  of  Augustus,  comprising  an  era  of  a  little  more  than  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years.  After  the  conquest  of  Greece,  the 
military  genius  of  the  Romans  became  tempered  by  some- 
thing of  a  literary  spirit;  and  the  arts  and  sciences,  which 
hitherto  had  languished  in  neglect,  or  been  rejected  with 
scorn,  began  to  be  cherished  with  fondness  and  cultivated 
with  assiduity.  The  new  ardour  which  was  excited  soon 
became  manifest  in  the  blaze  of  intellectual  excellence  which 


2  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D.  14 

was  produced.  All  the  force  and  the  blandishments  of 
poetry  have  been  concentrated  in  the  works  of  Lucretius,  of 
Virgil,  and  of  Horace;  while  the  Gracchi,  Hortensius,  Julius 
Csesar,1  and  above  all,  Cicero,  attained  to  such  a  degree  of 
excellence  in  oratory,  as  to  leave  it  doubtful  whether  the 
palm  of  eloquence  is  due  to  them  or  to  their  Grecian  masters. 
Sallust  and  Livy,  and  particularly  the  latter,  are  models  of 
historical  composition.  Cicero  taught  the  philosophy  of 
Greece  to  speak  the  language  of  Rome,  whilst  he  rendered 
the  doctrines  of  the  Grecian  sages  more  perspicuous  and  cap- 
tivating than  they  were  found  even  in  their  native  idiom.  In 
architecture,  Vitruvius  laid  down  the  rules  of  design  and  just 
proportion.  Other  studies  were  equally  encouraged.  In  the 
annals  of  literary  patronage  the  name  of  Maecenas  will  long^ 
be  remembered:  even  Augustus  himself,  whilst  he  held  the 
reins  of  government,  either  cultivated  by  his  genius,  or  pro- 
tected by  his  favour,  every  laudable  pursuit.2  Applause, 
rewards,  and  honours,  failed  not  to  attend  the  public  instruc- 
tors of  youth,  among  whom  were  sometimes  found  men  of 
exalted  science. 

Of  the  estimation  in  which  the  polite  arts  were  held,  we 
may  form  some  idea  from  the  rapacity  with  which  the  cities 
of  Greece  were  plundered,  and  collections  of  statues  made. 
And  this  might  be  a  principal  cause  why  Rome,  at  this  time, 
satisfied  with  the  easy  means  of  procurement,  had  herself  few 
artists  whose  names  are  recorded.3  In  a  moment  of  strange 
alienation  of  mind,  or  of  abject  adulation,  Virgil  indeed  hesi- 
tates not,  in  the  most  exquisite  strains  of  poesy,  to  speak 
slightingly  of  the  arts,  and  even  of  oratory;  and  to  represent 
no  pursuit  as  becoming  the  majesty  of  a  Roman,  but  to  hold 
the  sceptre  of  command,  to  dictate  laws,  to  spare  the  prostrate, 
and  to  humble  the  proud.  Those  are  the  pursuits  which  he 
recommends  as  peculiarly  worthy  the  ambition  of  his  fellow- 
citizens.4  But  if  the  sweets  of  patronage  or  the  dread  of 
despotism  could  vitiate  a  mind  of  so  much  purity,  or  degrade 


1  See  Cicero,  de  clar.  Orat.  pass.  2  Sueton.  in  Aug.  n.  89. 

3  Winckelman,  Storia  delle  arti,  T.  ii. 

4  "  Excudent  alii  spirantia  mollius  aera, 

Credo  equidem,  vivos  ducent  de  marmore  vultus ; 
Orabunt  causas  melius.     Cselique  meatus 
Describeiit  radio,  et  surgentia  sidera  dicent : 


TO  476.]  THE  ROMANS  AS  CONQUERORS.  3 

one  of  so  much  sublimity  as  that  of  Virgil,  was  it  not  even 
then  a  melancholy  presage  that  the  Romans  had  reached  their 
highest  point  of  intellectual  elevation? 

Hitherto  Rome  had  been,  and  continued  to  be,  the  seat  of 
learning,  and  the  centre  of  the  arts:  but  they  visited,  in 
their  progress,  the  neighbouring  cities,  and  from  them  passed 
to  the  remoter  provinces.  When  her  arms  had  surmounted 
the  Alps,  and  the  more  western  countries,  discomfited  by 
repeated  victories,  could  offer  no  further  resistance,  she  had 
recourse  to  her  usual  and  enlightened  policy  of  civilizing 
those  whom  she  had  vanquished,  and  of  extending  the  social 
habits  and  the  civil  jurisprudence  with  the  arts,  the  sciences, 
and  the  language  of  Rome,  to  the  extremities  of  the  empire. 
For  the  gross  manners  of  barbarians  she  substituted  those  of 
the  most  polished  capital  in  the  world;  for  the  rough  and  in- 
harmonious accents  of  an  uncultivated  dialect,  she  habituated 
the  ear  to  the  softer  melody  of  the  Latin  tongue ;  and  when 
she  had  allured  them  to  the  perusal,  she  laid  before  them  the 
pages  of  her  admired  poets,  her  historians,  and  her  philoso- 
phers; and,  in  exchange  for  the  rude  edifices  of  their  fathers, 
she  displayed  the  beautiful  proportions  of  architectural  design. 
Europe,  say  the  historians,  began  to  breathe  and  to  recover 
strength;  agriculture  was  encouraged;  population  increased; 
the  ruined  cities  were  rebuilt;  new  towns  were  founded; 
and,  an  appearance  of  prosperity  succeeding,  the  havoc  of  war 
was,  in  some  degree,  repaired.2  And  indeed,  when  at  this 
remote  period  we  survey  in  their  temples,  their  amphitheatres, 
their  aqueducts,  the  mere  ruins  of  the  gorgeous  structures 
which  were  raised  by  that  mighty  people,  we  feel  compelled 
to  acknowledge,  that  though  misery  and  destruction  at  first 
followed  the  track  of  their  arms,  it  was  afterwards  succeeded 

Tu  regere  imperio  populos,  Komane,  memento  ; 
Hae  tibi  ennit  artes  ;  paci^que  impouere  rnorem, 
Parcere  subjectis,  et  debellare  superbos." — jEneid,  vi. 

"  Others  more  soft  shall  carve  the  breathing  brass; 
Nay,  living  looks,  I  think,  from  marble  draw  ; 
Plead  causes  better;  with  a  wand  describe 
The  heavenly  roads,  and  trace  the  rising  stars. 
Roman,  remember  thou  to  rule  the  world : 
Be  these  thy  arts,  to  lix  the  laws  of  peace, 
To  spare  the  suppliant,  and  confound  the  proud." 

3  Dr.  Robertson,  View  of  the  State  of  Europe,  i.  2. 

B  2 


4  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D.  14 

by  happiness  and  abundance;   and  that  they  were  not   un- 
worthy of  the  universal  dominion  which  they  had  acquired. 

I  have  somewhere  seen  an  opinion  hazarded,  that  it  would 
have  been  well  for  the  state  of  man,  had  Carthage  triumphed, 
and  the  Roman  power  been  subdued.  It  has  been  supposed 
that,  compared  with  that  of  the  sword,  the  spirit  of  commerce 
is  mild  and  beneficent;  that,  acting  under  the  influence  of 
this  spirit,  Carthage  would  have  respected  the  rights  of 
nations,  and  have  promoted,  as  herself  interested  in  the  event, 
their  greater  prosperity;  that  by  her,  nautical  science  would 
have  been  advanced,  and  new  regions  discovered,  by  which  a 
more  early  and  general  intercourse  would  have  taken  place 
amongst  nations,  the  condition  of  mankind  would  have  been 
improved,  and  the  arts  of  peace  more  generally  cultivated. 
The  theory  is  pleasing,  but  it  is  not  in  unison  with  the  con- 
duct of  commercial  nations.  Their  spirit  is  less  often  mild 
and  beneficent,  than  selfish,  rapacious,  and  mercenary.  For 
them  letters  have  few  charms;  and  the  culture  of  the  nobler 
arts  is  apt  to  be  neglected  in  the  pursuit  of  sordid  pelf. 

Tacitus,  in  detailing  the  achievements  of  his  Agricola  in 
Britain,  has  a  passage  which  illustrates  the  conduct  of  the 
Romans  in  their  conquests. 

"  The  following  winter  was  devoted  to  points  of  the  highest 
utility  and  importance.  In  order  to  allure  the  scattered 
population  of  the  country  from  the  predatory  habits  to  which 
they  were  accustomed,  to  more  pacific  and  civilized  pursuits, 
Agricola  laboured  to  incite  them  by  individual  persuasion  and 
public  assistance,  to  erect  towns,  and  adorn  them  with  temples 
and  porticos.  He  praised  the  willing  and  he  reproved  the 
sluggish,  till  the  rivalry  of  honour  operated  like  the  feeling 
of  duty,  or  the  stimulus  of  necessity.  The  next  object  of  his 
policy  was  to  inspire  a  passion  for  letters  in  the  sons  of  the 
nobility.  The  genius  of  the  Britons  appeared  to  him  superior 
to  that  of  the  Gauls;  for  the  former  had  no  sooner  learned 
the  language  of  Rome,  than  they  discovered  a  desire  to  im- 
prove it  into  eloquence.  Our  fashions  rose  in  their  esteem; 
the  toga  was  frequently  seen  among  them;  and  by  degrees 
they  adopted  our  porticos  and  baths,  the  refinements  of  our 
architecture,  and  the  embellishments  of  our  luxury.  But 
what  the  thoughtless  and  the  ignorant  considered  as  the 
charm  of  polished  life,  was  in  fact  only  an  indication  of  the 
loss  of  their  liberty  and  independence."  l 
1  Vita  Agric.  c.  21. 


TO  476.]  RISE  OF  ROMAN  LITERATURE.  5 

But  what  is  human  must  ever  fluctuate;  and  the  progress 
of  learning  has  been  ingeniously  represented  as  a  curved  line, 
which,  having  reached  its  greatest  altitude,  again  descends  to 
the  plane  from  which  it  rose.  Whilst  the  Romans  were  dif- 
fusing a  taste  for  letters,  and  for  the  arts  of  civilized  life  over 
the  distant  provinces,  those  letters  and  those  arts  were  rapidly 
verging  to  decline  within  the  confines  of  Italy,  and  even 
within  the  walls  of  the  capital.  The  perfect  models  of  Roman 
eloquence  which  had  been  furnished  by  Cicero,  seemed  to  be 
left  only  to  shame  the  puny  efforts  of  his  followers.  The  loss 
of  liberty  and  the  extinction  of  public  spirit,  had  put  an  end 
to  that  freedom  of  thought  and  grandeur  of  sentiment  amongst 
the  Romans,  without  which  public  speaking  soon  becomes 
only  a  vapid  contest  of  sophistry  or  adulation.  Cicero  him- 
self was  not  unconscious  of  the  operation  of  those  causes 
which,  in  his  time,  had  secretly  begun  to  corrupt  the  genius 
of  Roman  eloquence.  To  the  intellectual  pre-eminence  of 
the  Greeks  he  was  never  sparing  of  his  praise;  but  he  thought 
that  in  oratory  the  Romans  had  nobly  struggled  with  them 
for  the  palm  of  victory.  "  Yet,  in  this  very  faculty,"  said 
he,  "  in  which  we  have  advanced  from  the  most  imperfect 
beginnings  to  the  highest  excellence,  we  may,  as  in  all  human 
things,  soon  expect  to  see  symptoms  of  decrepitude  and  the 
process  of  decay."  l 

The  declension  of  eloquence,  of  which  so  many  motives  of 
emolument  and  of  fame  conspired  to  promote  the  culture, 
might  naturally  be  expected  to  be  accompanied  with  the  fall 
of  many  sister  arts.  Here,  however,  a  question  presents  itself 
which  is  not  easy  to  be  solved,  and  which  I  shall  do  little 
more  than  state.  What,  it  may  be  asked,  were  the  causes 
that,  at  this  period,  had  carried  literature  to  so  high  a  degree 
of  excellence  ?  Many,  doubtless,  were  those  causes  ai'ising 
from  a  fortunate  combination  of  circumstances,  the  principal 
of  which  may  be  referred,  I  think,  as  Cicero  often  confesses, 
to  the  habit  of  frequenting  the  Greek  schools,  and  the  con- 
sequent admiration  of  the  perfect  models,  in  every  art,  which 
were  there  exhibited.  Curiosity  was  thus  stimulated;  and 
emulation  was  gradually  spread  from  breast  to  breast,  till  a 
vivid  desire  was  excited  to  acquire  in  the- pursuits  of  literature 
and  the  arts,  the  same  distinction  which  they  had  already 
attained  by  their  military  achievements. 

1  Tuscul.  1.  1.  D.  3.— 1.  11.  n.  2. 


6  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D.   14 

The  history  of  the  decline  of  letters,  as  they  regard  Italy, 
has  been  treated  in  a  manner  at  once  so  masterly  and  copious, 
by  a  late  Italian  author,1  that  I  might  deservedly  be  accused 
of  arrogance,  were  I  to  neglect  his  sources  of  information; 
though  I  should,  perhaps,  be  charged  with  negligence  of 
research  if  I  employed  them  without  reserve.  Tiraboschi 
divides  the  whole  period,  from  the  death  of  Augustus  (which 
coincides  with  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  Christian  rera)  to  the 
fall  of  the  Western  Empire  in  476,  into  three  epochs,  in  each 
of  which,  having  first  exhibited  a  short  view  of  the  character 
and  conduct  of  the  successive  emperors  in  regard  to  science 
and  the  arts,  he  details,  under  separate  heads,  the  vicissitudes 
of  literature,  and  the  stages  of  its  decline.2 

When  public  liberty  was  extinct,  it  will  readily  be  conceived 
how  great  must  have  been  the  influence  of  the  imperial  will 
on  the  state  of  learning,  as  it  was  either  neglected,  oppressed, 
or  encouraged,  according  to  the  fluctuations  of  caprice, 
aversion,  or  regard.  The  mind,  in  general,  turns  from  the 
race  of  the  Cassars  with  disgust,  though  some  of  them,  as 
Tiberius  and  Claudius,  were  not  devoid  of  literary  acquire- 
ments.3 It  is  with  some  pleasure  that  we  dwell  on  the  at- 
tempts of  Vespasian  to  repair  the  evils  of  his  predecessors, 
but  Titus  is  the  subject  of  more  pleasurable  contemplation.4 
He  was  an  amiable  prince,  and  an  accomplished  scholar;  but 
the  fates  seemed  only  to  show  him  to  the  earth,  that  his  loss 
might  be  deplored.  After  the  death  of  the  tyrant  Domitian, 
we  welcome 'the  reigns  of  Nerva,  of  Trajan,  and,  may  I  say, 
of  Adrian?  Adrian  was,  indeed,  learned;  but  his  erudition 
was  tinctured  with  a  jealousy  of  the  literary  fame  of  others, 
which  bordered  upon  meanness,  and  was  totally  unworthy  of 
a  sovereign.  Such  was  his  jaundiced  taste,  that  he  preferred 
the  elder  Cato  to  Cicero;  and  Ennius  to  Virgil;  and  even  the 
names  of  Homer  and  of  Plato  excited  his  disgust.5  Trajan, 
bred  from  his  earliest  youth  to  the  profession  of  arms,  and  rank- 
ing with  the  first  generals  of  antiquity,  had  not  a  sufficiency 
of  leisure  for  the  acquisition  of  learning;  but  he  wanted  not 
judgment  to  distinguish,  nor  munificence  to  reward,  those  by 
whom  it  was  possessed.  The  scholars,  not  only  of  Rome,  but 
of  Greece,  were  selected  as  the  objects  of  his  patronage,  and 
equally  felt  the  effects  of  his  liberality. 

1  Tiraboschi,  Storia  della  Letteratura  Italiana.  -  T.  11. 

3  Sueton.  hi  Tib.  et  Claud.       *  Id.  in  Tit.      5  jElius  Spartian.  iu  Adrian. 


TO  476.]  DECLINE  OF  KOMAN  LITERATURE.  7 

A  little  more  than  a  hundred  years  had  elapsed,  for 
Adrian  died  in  138;  and  if  learning,  during  so  short  a  period, 
as  \ve  shall  soon  see,  had  sensibly  declined,  want  of  liberty 
rather  than  want  of  imperial  encouragement  was  the  cause. 
The  great  men  in  the  age  of  Augustus  had  received  the  first 
impulse  to  their  genius  before  the  destruction  of  the  republic; 
and  the  effects  of  the  spirit  of  liberty,  in  some  degree,  re- 
mained after  the  ancient  constitution  had  degenerated  into  an 
absolute  monarchy.  When  suspicion  was  universally  excited, 
the  character  alone  of  being  learned  could  hardly  fail  to 
awaken  jealousy;  and  the  annals  of  the  times  have  recorded 
the  names  of  many  eminent  scholars,  who  became  the 
victims  of  a  tyrant's  fears.1  A  sensitive  timidity,  rather 
than  a  robust  hardihood  of  character,  is  too  often  the  result 
of  solitary  application;  and  to  that  timidity  may  be  ascribed 
the  adulatory  baseness,  by  which  the  writings  of  many 
authors  at  that  time  were  disgraced.  Velleius  Paterculus 
did  not  blush  to  praise  Tiberius,  and  his  band  of  courtiers; 
nor  Quintilian  to  extol  even  the  genius  of  Domitian.2  Under 
such  leaders,  the  political  and  judicial  constitution  of  the 
empire  became  a  prey  to  every  assailant,  whilst  internal  dis- 
cord, vitiated  manners,  and  an  unbounded  luxury,  gave  new 
strength  to  the  wasting  force  of  profligacy  and  corruption.3 

If  anything  could  have  rescued  from  merited  reproach 
the  name  of  Adrian,  it  would  have  been  the  adoption  of 
Antoninus  Pius.  Endowed  by  nature  with  superior  talents, 
which  had  been  carefully  improved  by  cultivation,  and  pos- 
sessing an  easy  flow  of  eloquence,  Antoninus,  amidst  the 
cares  of  empire,  could  find  time  for  literary  pursuits;  but  it 
is  related  of  him  as  principally  praiseworthy,  that,  on  the 
professors  of  the  arts,  whom  he  established  in  Rome  and  in 
the  provinces,  he  bestowed  stipends,  honours,  and  a  variety 
of  privileges.4  Marcus  Aurelius,  a  name  dear  to  virtue  and 
to  science,  pursued  the  same  path,  and  sought  glory  by  the 
same  honourable  toils.  He  had  been  tutored,  from  early 
youth,  in  all  the  branches  of  elegant  literature;  but  his  mind, 
says  the  historian,5  was  addicted  to  serious  reflection;  and  he 
often  neglected  the  captivating  society  of  the  Muses  to  court 

1  Com.  Tacit.  Annul.  Sueton.  in  Caligul. 

2  Vel.  Paterc.  ^uintil.  Instit.  iv.  I.  x.  1.          3  .In venal,  Satyr,  passim. 
*  Julius  Capitoliu.  in  Antoniu.  s  Id.  in  M.  Antouin. 


8  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   14 

the  fellowship  of  the  severe  disciples  of  Zeno.  In  the  schools 
of  the  Stoics  he  experienced  his  greatest  delight;  and  he 
modelled  his  conduct  by  their  precepts.  Notwithstanding 
this  preference,  the  masters  in  every  science  were  objects  of 
his  favour;  and  it  is  amusing  to  read  of  the  honours  which 
he  conferred.  To  one  he  raised  a  statue  in  the  senate;  a 
second  was  made  a  proconsul;  and  he  twice  promoted  a 
third  to  the  consular  dignity.  Their  images  Avere  suffered 
to  repose  with  those  of  his  tutelary  deities;  and  he  offered 
victims,  and  strewed  flowers,  on  their  tombs.1 

Of  the  persons  who  were  thus  honoured  by  imperial  pa- 
tronage, few  could  make  pretensions  to  classical  elegance; 
and  many,  of  whom  the  greater  number  were  Greeks,  clothed 
in  the  philosophic  garb,  devoted  their  lives  to  the  severer 
studies;  or,  in  order  to  secure  the  countenance  of  their  sove- 
reign, affected  the  austerity  of  his  school.  If  Marcus  Aure- 
lius  returned  thanks  to  the  gods  for  having  weaned  him  from 
the  allurements  of  poetry  and  eloquence,  his  subjects  would 
be  less  disposed  to  cultivate  those  arts  which  he  had  re- 
nounced. 

At  the  name  of  Commodus,  the  son  of  Aurelius,  and  of 
the  cruel  Septimus  Severus,  of  Caracalla,  land  of  the  disso- 
lute Elagabalus,  science  hangs  her  head;  nor,  in  the  suc- 
ceeding reigns,  does  she  find  much  ground  for  comfort, 
though  Alexander  Severus,  and  a  few  others,  were  well 
inclined  to  espouse  her  cause.2  But  it  was  observed,  that  an 
immature  death  too  often  abridged  the  lives  of  those,  from 
whose  virtues,  or  from  whose  talents,  some  good  might  have 
been  expected.  From  Diocletian,  or  his  colleagues  in  the 
empire,  whom  no  education  had  refined,  and  who  were  little 
more  than  soldiers  of  fortune,  what  good  could  be  expected  to 
proceed?  The  school  of  arms  is  not  the  school  of  letters;  and 
whatever  had  been  their  disposition,  they  were  too  much 
involved  in  civil  broils,  and  absorbed  in  the  interests  of  am- 
bition, to  attend  to  those  of  literature  and  science. 

In  this  rapid  glance  over  a  period  of  somewhat  more  than  a 
hundred  and  seventy  years,  what  a  scene  has  the  eye  sur- 
veyed! The  greatest  portion  of  it  is  filled  with  conspiracies 
and  seditions,  bloodshed  and  devastation  of  all  kinds.  Suc- 

1  Julius  Capitolin.  in  M.  Antonin. 

2  See  their  respective  historians  among  the  Augustoe  Historiae  Scriptores. 


TO  476.]  DECLINE  OF  ROMAN  LITERATURE.  9 

cessive  competitors  were  continually  struggling  for  empire, 
and  he,  who  to-day  was  seen  trodden  in  the  dust,  had  but  a 
few  days  before  been  raised  by  the  legions  to  the  throne. 

A  new  order  of  things  and  a  more  pleasurable  prospect 
now  open  before  us.  "We  behold  a  Christian  emperor,  who 
was  adorned  with  those  virtues,  military  and  civil,  which 
could  command  the  respect  of  distant  nations,  and  the  love 
of  his  subjects,  at  the  death  of  Licinius,  invested  with  the 
sceptre  of  the  Roman  world.  But  were  letters  and  the 
polite  arts  as  dear  to  Constantino  as  the  general  interests  of 
the  vast  society,  to  the  superintendence  of  which  he  had 
been  called?  If  we  may  believe  the  historian  of  his  life,1 
who  is  certainly  sometimes  too  encomiastic,  letters  and  the 
arts  were  the  object  of  his  fond  solicitude.  His  mind  had 
been  early  imbued  with  a  tincture  of  learning;  he  afterwards 
cultivated  eloquence,  and  composed  in  the  Latin  language; 
and  the  decrees  published  by  him  in  favour  of  the  professors 
of  the  learned  arts,  which  may  still  be  read,2  are  an  incon- 
testable proof  of  his  good-will.  But  Rome,  and  I  may  say 
the  western  world,  has  a  charge  against  him  which  can  never 
be  effaced;  he  removed  the  seat  of  empire  to  Byzantium. 
The  charge  is  thus  justly  stated  by  a  modern  writer.3  The 
city  of  Constantinople,  he  observes,  founded  as  a  rival  to 
Rome,  and  chosen  for  the  imperial  residence,  proved  a  source 
of  fatal  evils  to  the  ancient  capital,  to  Italy,  and  to  its  litera- 
ture. Rome  hitherto  had  been  deemed  the  metropolis  of 
the  world;  but  the  attention  of  mankind  was  soon  attracted 
to  the  new  imperial  residence.  All  affairs  of  moment  were 
transacted  at  Constantinople,  which  became  the  general  re- 
sort of  persons  of  eminence  in  all  ranks  and  professions;  and 
what  Rome  had  been  was  seen  only  in  the  dreary  pomp  of 
her  edifices,  and  the  silent  magnificence  of  her  streets. 
Literature  also  forsook  her  former  abode,  and  whither  were 
her  professors  likely  to  retire  but  to  the  new  city,  where 
rewards  and  honours  were  to  be  found?  The  cultivation  of 
the  Greek  in  preference  to  the  Latin  language,  in  a  country 
of  Greeks,  could  not  fail  soon  to  be  adopted,  to  the  obvious 
detriment  of  the  western  learning.  And  when  the  empire 
on  the  death  of  Constantine  was  divided,  Rome,  even  then, 

1  Euseb.  Vita  Constant.  1.1.         -  See  the  Codex  Justimaiius,  x.,  xiii. 
3  Tiruboschi,  Storia  delhi  Letteraturn,  11.  iv.  1. 


10  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  14 

was  not  the  ordinary  seat  of  her  princes.  Her  loss,  however, 
turned  to  the  advantage  of  other  cities.  When  she  ceased 
to  be  the  universal  centre,  men  of  learning  were  sometimes 
satisfied  with  their  distant  stations,  where,  in  a  sphere  less 
splendid,  they  could  circulate  round  them  the  love,  and  in- 
vite to  the  cultivation,  of  letters. 

The  sons  of  Constantine,  though  two  of  them  had  their 
stations  in  the  west,  were  little  solicitous  to  repair  the  injury 
which  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  empire  had  occasioned; 
and  when,  after  some  years,  Constantine  became  sole  master, 
so  engaged  was  he  with  the  necessary  defence  of  his  widely 
extended  dominions,  or  so  absorbed  in  the  Arian  contro- 
versy which  then  distracted  the  Christian  world,  that  classical 
literature  in  vain  implored  his  fostering  care.  Besides,  at 
this  time,  the  systems  of  Grecian  philosophy  had  gained 
so  many  admirers  among  the  converts  to  Christianity,  and  by 
their  alluring  theories  had  so  far  succeeded  in  perplexing  its 
simple  truths,  that  men  of  the  brightest  abilities  eagerly  en- 
gaged in  the  new  pursuits;  and  that  harmonious  and  manly 
language  which  the  sages,  the  poets,  and  orators  of  Greece 
had  spoken,  was  alienated  to  the  purposes  of  sophistic  dis- 
putation. 

The  line  of  Constantine  was  terminated  by  Julian,  a  prince 
of  some  abilities,  and  who  was  not  indifferent  to  the  interests 
of  literature;  but  his  mind  was  vitiated  by  a  more  than  ordi- 
nary portion  of  levity  and  credulity,  and  hence  he  became  an 
easy  prey  to  the  artifices  of  the  philosophers,  whom  he  pro- 
fessed to  admire,  and  who  were  still  addicted  to  the  heathen 
ritual.  To  their  discourses  he  had  given  peculiar  attention: 
he  had,  besides,  been  trained  in  the  habit  of  composition, 
and,  having  frequented  the  schools  of  Greece,  he  had  learned 
to  write  their  language  with  purity  and  ease.  His  hatred  of 
Christianity  was  extreme;  and  though  the  means  which  he 
adopted  for  the  promotion  of  learning  were  highly  commend- 
able, yet  his  views  were  so  illiberal  that  he  refused  the  aid  of 
science  to  the  professors  of  the  new  religion,  in  order,  as  far 
as  lay  in  his  power,  to  oppress  them  with  the  reproach  of 
ignorance.  He  forbade  their  public  masters  to  teach;  and  as 
they  believe  not,  he  said,  in  the  gods,  whose  names  are  re- 
peated in  the  very  authors  whom  they  most  love  to  interpret, 
let  them  repair  rather  to  the  assemblies  of  the  Galileans  (as 
he  opprobriously  termed  the  Christians)  and  there  comment 


TO  476.]  VALENTINIAN GRATIAN.  11 

on  the  works  of  Matthew  and  Luke.  His  reign  did  not 
embrace  a  period  of  two  years.1 

Not  many  months  after  the  death  of  Julian,  the  empire  was 
permanently  divided  into  the  two  great  members  of  the  east 
and  west.  To  the  west  I  shall  confine  myself.  Valentinian  I. 
himself  a  poet,  as  is  related,2  an  artist,  and  endowed  with 
eloquence,  passed  several  laws  in  order  to  restore  the  Christian 
teachers  to  their  former  privileges,  and  to  encourage  general 
learning,  even  in  the  distant  provinces.3  His  motives  were 
laudable,  and  his  measures  had  an  obvious  tendency  to  encou- 
rage literary  application;  but  do  not  his  laws,  at  the  same 
time,  prove  how  much  the  general  standard  of  study  had 
declined,  and  how  languid  the  desire  of  mental  improvement 
had  become?  Indeed,  a  contemporary  writer,4  coupling  the 
increasing  ignorance  with  the  licentious  depravity  of  the 
times,  has  described  the  houses  of  Rome,  in  which  the  sciences 
had  once  flourished,  as  resounding  with  musical  instruments, 
the' performers  on  which  had  taken  the  place  of  grave  philo- 
sophers;  where  jugglers  had  succeeded  to  orators;  and  the 
libraries  were  for  ever  closed,  like  the  monuments  of  the 
dead. 

I  shall  say  nothing  of  Gratian,  whom  Ausonius  has  immo- 
derately praised,5  and  whom,  perhaps,  as  a  grateful  return 
for  his  panegyric,  the  prince  raised  to  the  consulate;  nor  of 
his  brother  Valentinian  II.,  both  of  whom  were  massacred  in 
the  spring  of  life.  It  has  redounded  much  to  the  praise  of 
Gratian,  that  he  invited  the  great  Theodosius  to  the  support 
of  the  falling  empire,  who,  by  that  mean,  was  raised  to  the 
possession  of  the  eastern  throne.  He  afterwards  also  occu- 
pied that  of  the  west.  This  prince,  though  he  was  not  him- 
self profoundly  learned,  could  admire  learning  in  others,  and 
could  devote  his  leisure  hours  to  instructive  reading,  when 
the  toils  of  government  allowed  him  an  interval  of  repose. 
The  simple  manners  of  the  good  and  virtuous  were,  it  has 
been  said,  his  principal  delight;  but  he  failed  not  to  reward 
every  art  and  every  talent  of  an  useful,  or  even  of  a  harmlo* 
kind,  with  a  judicious  liberality. 

The  fourth  century  closed,  and  the  fifth  opened,  while  the 

1  See  Ammianus  Marcellinns,  pass.  Liban.  in  Julian,  and  on  the  works  of 
Julian,  J-':iliric.  Bib.  Graeca,  \ii.  viii. 

»  Auson.  Opera,  :!7:i.  a  See  the  Codex  Theod. 

4  Ammian.  Marcel,  xiv.  fi.  s  See  Auson.  Oper. 


12  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.        [A.D.  14 

purple  was  disgraced  by  the  imbecile  Honoring,  one  of  the 
sons  of  Theodosius.  This  was  a  period  of  accumulated  dis- 
tress to  the  Roman  States.  In  the  preceding  years,  they  had 
often,  with  various  success,  been  invaded  by  the  barbarians 
from  the  north,  first  in  quest  of  plunder,  and  then,  as  they 
felt  the  allurements  of  a  milder  climate,  or  the  pleasures  of  a 
less  savage  life,  in  quest  of  settlements.  Resistance,  though 
sometimes  crowned  by  victory,  was  ultimately  vain;  for  new 
bodies  of  armed  men,  with  their  wives  and  children,  their 
slaves  and  flocks,  kept  constantly  advancing  with  steady  per- 
severance. In  less  than  two  centuries  from  their  first  erup- 
tion, they  extended  their  ravage  and  their  conquest  over 
Thrace,  Pannonia,  Gaul,  Spain,  Africa,  and  finally,  over  Italy. 
Even  Rome,  in  the  tenth  year  of  the  fifth  century,  saw  Alaric 
with  his  Goths  within  her  walls.1 

The  effects  of  these  invasions  on  literature  and  the  arts, 
and  more  than  the  invasions,  the  effects  of  the  permanent 
settlements  in  the  provinces,  will  hereafter  be  detailed.  Let 
me  now  only  add,  that  ten  emperors,  from  the  death  of 
Honorius  in  423,  filled  the  western  throne,  during  whose 
reigns  the  Huns,2  under  Attila,  in  452,  overran  Italy  with 
furious  impetuosity.  Genseric,  with  his  Vandals  from  Africa, 
in  455,  surprised  Rome,  which  he  abandoned  to  pillage  during 
fourteen  days.  New  scenes  of  devastation  were  daily  re- 
peated; and  finally,  when  a  civil  war  between  the  competitors 
for  the  throne  filled  up  the  measure  of  misfortune,  the  bar- 
barians, of  whom  the  provinces  were  full,  and  with  whom  the 
ranks  of  the  army  were  crowded,  demanded,  as  their  stipulated 
property,  one  half  of  the  lands  of  Italy;  and  when  this  was 
refused,  aspired  to  a  higher  price.  Odoacer,  the  chief  of  the 
Heruli,  pursued  his  victorious  career  to  the  walls  of  Rome, 
despoiled  Augustulus,  a  name  of  ominous  import,  of  the 
purple,  proclaimed  himself  king  of  Italy,  and  ascended  the 
vacant  throne.  The  western  empire  closed.  This  was  in  the 
year  476,  at  which  time  Africa  obeyed  the  Vandals;  Spain 
and  part  of  Gaul  were  subject  to  the  Goths;  the  Burgundians 
and  Franks  occupied  the  remainder;  and  many  parts  of 
Britain  were  subject  to  the  domination  of-*he  Saxons. 

1  See  Jornaudes,  De  rebus  Geticis.  He  was  himself  a  Goth,  and  bishop 
of  Ravenna,  in  the  reign  of  Justinian. — See  Book  II. 

*  The  description  of  the  character  and  persons  of  the  Huns,  by  Jor- 
nandes  (xxiv.),is  curious. 


TO  476.]  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  BARBARIANS.  13 

Having  concluded  this  historical  view,  I  feel  an  apprehen- 
sion lest,  in  attempting  to  render  it  concise,  I  have  rendered 
it  useless;  and  yet  it  would  not  have  accorded  with  my  pur- 
pose to  be  more  prolix.  The  connexion  which  it  has  with  the 
principal  subject  is  obvious  to  me,  and  I  think  that  it  will  be 
not  less  apparent  to  the  reader  as  I  proceed.  The  patronage 
of  power  may  often  operate  only  as  a  stimulus  to  adulation, 
but  great  exertions  can  seldom  prosper  without  its  aid;  and, 
therefore,  in  the  long  train  of  princes  who  sometimes  en- 
nobled, and  sometimes  disgraced  the  imperial  throne,  I  was 
willing  to  exhibit  their  characters,  their  tastes,  their  acquire- 
ments, and  their  propensities,  as  they  had  a  relation  to  the 
cause  of  literature.  But  amidst  the  havoc  of  war  and  bloodshed, 
of  infuriated  ambition  and  jealous  rivalry,  what  had  literature 
to  expect?  The  Italian  provinces  were  afterwards  exposed  to 
the  inroads  of  barbarous  hordes,  who  spread  general  devasta- 
tion over  the  fairest  portion  of  the  globe,  and  spared  neither 
the  arts  nor  literature  in  their  rage.  Living  in  the  midst  of 
their  triumphant  invaders,  condemned  to  listen  to  their  rude 
speech,  and  to  form  their  organs  to  its  sounds,  few  had  leisure, 
and  fewer  had  inclination,  to  cultivate  studies  which  those 
barbarians  had  not  taste  to  admire,1  but  which  they  were 
rather  naturally  led  to  despise,  as  they  had  not  taught  those 
by  whom  they  were  cultivated  to  defend  their  altars  and  their 
homes. 

I  have  hitherto  merely  sketched  the  general  outline  of  the 
decline  of  literature  through  this  period  of  nearly  four  hundred 
and  seventy  years,  and  I  shall  now  proceed  to  arrange  it 
under  separate  heads,  that  I  may  show  with  more  distinct- 
ness the  progress  of  its  decay.  We  will  return,  therefore,  to 
the  close  of  the  Augustan  age.  But  I  must  previously  ob- 
serve that,  in  discussing  this  subject,  the  reader  must  not 
expect  a  critical  disquisition,  or  rather  comparison,  of  the 
several  authors  with  their  predecessors.  Such  a  work  would 
be  devoid  of  interest  to  the  generality  of  readers.  It  will, 
however,  be  gratifying  to  me  to  think  that,  in  this  part  of 
my  subject,  I  am  writing  principally  to  those  who  have  been 
delighted  with  the  masterly  productions  of  the  Augustan  age, 

1  The  character  drawn  of  his  countrymen  by  Jornandes  is  far  mon-  f«- 
vounil.li',  I>r  ivlms  (ii-ticis,  r.  .">,  11.  They  were  strangers,  if  we  may  be- 
lieve him,  to  no  science  ! — See  Book  II. 


14  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D.  14 

and  who,  in  turning  to  the  pages  of  less  polished  times,  have 
experienced  a  sensible  decrease  of  their  pleasure  and  their 
admiration. 

I  begin  with  the  consideration  of  eloquence,  because  the 
decline  of  that  art  was  first  perceived.  Cicero  himself,  as  the 
reader  will  recollect,  anticipated  that  event.  This  illustrious 
orator  had  carried  his  favourite  pursuit  to  a  pitch  of  excel- 
lence which  was  never  surpassed  in  any  age.  To  force  of  senti- 
ment he  united  majesty  of  diction;  he  exhibited  copiousness 
blended  with  precision;  and  whilst  he  luxuriates  in  richness  of 
phrase,  he  is  not  negligent  of  simplicity.  If  the  votaries  of 
eloquence  had  attempted  to  rival  this  model  of  perfection,  they 
should  not  have  deviated  from  those  principles  of  nature,  or  of 
reason  and  of  taste,  which  he  so  ardently  pursued.  But  they 
would  be  greater  than  Cicero,  and  by  other  means.  They 
complained  that  his  style  was  too  diffuse,  his  periods  not  suf- 
ficiently compressed,  and  that  his  language  had  occasionally 
a  mixture  of  convivial  familiarity.  That  accumulation  of 
defects  therefore  occurred  which  might  have  been  expected. 
Their  copiousness  became  a  feeble  and  tedious  prolixity; 
their  precision  degenerated  into  obscurity;  and  natural  orna- 
ment was  exchanged  for  a  vitiated  glare  of  decoration.  In 
one  word,  the  general  style  of  the  new  orators  was  harsh, 
enigmatical,  quaint,  encumbered  with  unnecessary  words, 
and  with  superfluous  ornament. 

But  how,  it  may  be  asked,  could  that  taste  which  was 
formed  on  the  best  models  of  excellence,  thus  rapidly  degene- 
rate? Without  endeavouring  to  scrutinize  the  various  causes 
of  this  event,  I  will  merely  observe,  that  in  addition  to  the 
injudicious  choice  of  a  new  road  to  excellence,  and  the  insta- 
bility of  all  human  attainments,  Rome  had  not,  at  this  time, 
the  same  incitements  to  the  ambition  of  her  statesmen  and 
the  zeal  of  her  orators.  Since  the  destruction  of  liberty,  in 
proportion  as  the  whole  judicial  power  became  invested  in 
the  will  of  an  individual,  the  senate  ceased  to  be  the  theatre 
of  a  noble  emulation;  and  the  forum  was  no  longer  the 
favourite  resort  of  the  people.  In  all  countries,  I  believe  that 
the  people  are  the  best  judges  of  genuine  eloquence.  Their 
attention  may  be  seduced  by  tinsel  and  glitter,  and  their  under- 
standings may  be  confounded  by  indefinite  and  mysterious 
terms;  but  when  Mark  Antony,  in  plain  and  simple  language, 
commends  Csesar,  speaks  honourably  of  his  murderers,  and 


TO  476.]  ASINIUS    POLLIO.  15 

shows  his  bloody  garment,  pierced  with  numerous  stabs,  they 
seize  the  arms  which  first  present  themselves,  and  rush  with 
frantic  rage  to  the  houses  of  his  assassins.1  Had  an  appeal 
been  made  to  this  tribunal  —  that  is,  to  the  judgment  of 
unsophisticated  nature,  the  false  taste  of  which  I  speak 
would  probably  have  been  corrected,  or  its  progress  re- 
tarded. 

It  was  fostered  by  men  of  talents,  and  of  high  repute  in 
the  republic  of  letters.  Among  these  the  courtly  Maecenas  has 
been  sometimes  named,  who  was,  perhaps,  a  judge  of  merit, 
and  certainly  its  generous  protector;  but,  from  the  character 
of  his  mind,  which  was  extravagantly  voluptuous,  he  was 
naturally  an  admirer2  of  that  style  in  which  a  masculine 
energy  and  animation  were  not  predominant.3  Ovid  is  also 
here  liable  to  his  share  of  blame.  The  graceful  languor  of  his 
poetry  may  have  communicated  some  portion  of  effeminate 
taste  to  the  other  departments  of  literature.  Those  who  are 
enervated  by  luxury  are  accessible  to  contagion  on  every 
side.  But  Asinius  Pollio  may,  with  most  semblance  of  truth, 
be  accused  of  haying  vitiated  the  public  taste,  as  far  as  the 
example,  the  writings,  or  the  admonitions  of  one  man  can 
be  supposed  capable  of  producing  that  effect.  He  lived 
during  the  age  of  Augustus,  was  a  celebrated  orator  and 
historian,  and  is  said  to  have  opened  the  first  public  library  in 
Rome.  But  Pollio  was  seized  with  a  jealousy  of  the  fame  of 
others,  and  particularly  of  that  of  Cicero.  Cicero  therefore 
became  the  object  of  his  constant  depreciation;  and  this  he 
could  do  with  little  opposition,  as  the  name  of  the  strenuous 
advocate  of  liberty  could  not  but  be  ungrateful  to  the  ears 
of  the  despot  by  whom  he  had  been  betrayed,  and  liberty 
had  been  extinguished.  It  was  probably  a  consideration  of 
this  kind,  more  than  any  real  want  of  taste,  that  induced  the 
persons  of  whom  I  speak  to  depart  from  the  great  model  of 
eloquence,  and  to  adopt  another  style.  That  of  Pollio  has 
been  described  and  criticised  by  judges  not  far  removed  from 
the  times  in  which  he  lived.  "  In  him,"  observes  Quin- 
tilian,4  "there  is  invention,  great  accuracy,  by  some  deemed 
too  great;  there  are  design  and  spirit  of  execution:  but  the 
whole  composition  possesses  as  little  of  the  finished  elegance 

i  I'lutarcli,  in  M.  Brut          2  Veil.  Paterc.  11.  88. 
*  Suet,  in  Aug.  4  Instil,  x.  1. 


16  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  14 

and  charms  of  Cicero,  as  if  he  had  lived  a  hundred  years 
before  him.  The  opinion  of  others  is  not  more  favourable. 
Even  Seneca  the  philosopher,  though  himself  was  equally 
censurable,  could  animadvert  with  severity  upon  the  style  of 
Asinius  Pollio.  The  jejune,  the  abrupt,  the  affected,  they 
observe,  now  began  to  prevail,  where  copiousness,  grace,  and 
elegance1  had  before  been  seen. 

Quintilian  enters  more  at  large  into  this  subject,  where  he 
describes  the  endless  labour  of  a  modern  orator  intent  on 
composition.2  He  had  premised,  that  elocution,  that  is,  the 
art  of  conveying  to  an  audience,  in  embellished  diction,  the 
various  conceptions  of  the  mind,  was  the  great  work  of  ora- 
tory, and  could  not  be  accomplished,  except  by  unremitting 
assiduity.  But  he  remarks,  how  much  this  important  point 
was  mistaken,  when,  instead  of  adopting  such  words  as  the 
subject  naturally  presented,  extraneous  decorations  were 
sought  with  a  puerile  fondness;  and  the  whole  composition  was 
enervated  by  the  luxury  of  effeminate  ornaments.  What  might 
be  readily  expressed  was  smothered  under  a  mass  of  words ; 
and  what  had  been  sufficiently  discussed  was  repeated  till  dis- 
gust was  produced.  Nothing  pleases  that  is  strictly  proper; 
what  another  would  have  said,  must  not  be  admitted;  the 
vocabularies  of  obscure  poets  are  ransacked;  and  it  is  thought 
that  true  genius  has  been  shown  only  when  genius  is  necessary 
to  detect  the  sense.  Cicero,  he  adds,  had  indeed  laid  it  down 
as  a  rule,  that,  in  oratorical  composition,  there  could  not  be 
a  more  vicious  practice  than  to  depart  from  the  common  lan- 
guage and  ordinary  sentiments  of  mankind;  but  what  little 
judgment  and  discrimination,  he  says  ironically,  did  Cicero 
possess,  and  how  much  more  exquisite  is  our  taste,  who  are 
too  fastidious  not  to  loathe  whatever  is  agreeable  to  nature 
and  to  truth! 

Of  the  orations  of  Asinius  Pollio,  and  of  many  others  in 
the  same  line  of  eloquence,  nothing  is  come  down  to  us;  nor 
have  we  any  reason  to  lament  their  loss.  We  know  what  their 
character  was.  But  we  have  some  writings  of  his  contempo- 
rary, Seneca,  the  rhetorician,  the  father  of  the  philosopher; 
the  declamations  ascribed  to  Quintilian;  and  the  celebrated 


1  See  tliis  subject  fully  discussed  by  Tiraboschi,  1.  251 — 280,  to  whose 
labours  I  have  often  obligations,  wlien  I  do  not  express  them. 

2  Procem.  viii. 


TO  476.]  SENECA    THE    RHETORICIAN.  17 

panegyric  of  Pliny  the  younger  addressed  to  Trajan.  If  the 
declamations  ascribed  to  Quintilian  could  be  proved  to  have 
come  from  his  pen,  it  Avould  be  clear  that,  when  he  composed 
them,  he  had  overlooked  every  precept  which  he  had  incul- 
cated in  his  Oratorical  Institutions.  They  can  be  esteemed  as 
no  better  than  exercises  on  imaginary  topics,  which  were  pro- 
posed in  the  schools,  by  which  it  was  thought  that  the  art  of 
public  speaking  might  be  acquired;  and  the  style  in  which 
they  are  written,  is  a  striking  exemplication  of  the  false  taste 
which  has  been  described.1  The  same  opinion  must  be  enter- 
tained of  the  orations,  or  rather  declamations,  of  Seneca,  which 
were  formed  on  a  similar  plan.  Indeed,  in  the  ears  of  an  ele- 
gant scholar,  the  name  of  Seneca  is  almost  synonymous  with 
affectation  and  bad  taste.  The  family  was  from  Spain.  Here, 
if  it  would  not  occupy  too  much  space,  I  could  with  pleasure 
copy  a  passage2  from  Quintilian,  on  the  moral  virtues  and 
classical  vices  of  Seneca  the  philosopher.  Part  of  the  passage 
I  have  mentioned  would  apply  to  the  father,  where  he  shows 
how  just  his  own  taste  was,  and  how  just  also  was  the  judg- 
ment which  he  had  formed  of  that  uncommon  man.  Quinti- 
lian in  this  place  discovers  an  anxiety  to  put  young  men  on 
their  guard  against  a  writer  whose  very  defects  pleased,  and 
whose  style  was  the  more  dangerous,  as  it  abounded  dulcibvs 
vitiis.  In  the  concluding  sentence,  it  appears  to  me  that  he 
himself  exhibits  an  example  of  that  studied  prettiness  of 
thought  and  expression  which  he  had  so  severely  condemned 
but  just  before.  Digna  enim  fait  ilia  natura,  (that  of  Seneca), 
qua  meliora  vellet,  qua  quod  voluit,  ejffecit. 

Of  Quintilian,  I  must  not  omit  to  say.  that  whatever  coun- 
try gave  him  birth,  whether  Italy  or  Spain,3  he  resided  in 
Rome,  where  he  gave  lectures  in  eloquence,  and  received  a 
salary  from  the  treasury.  In  the  reign  of  Domitian  he  after- 
wards Avrote  his  Institutions,  a  work  which,  notwithstanding 
some  prolixity  in  the  manner,  and  some  blemishes  of  style, 
has  novf-r  been  surpassed  in  justness  of  precept,  nicety  of 
discernment,  and  depth  of  critical  erudition.  The  want  of 
Ciceronian  purity  with  which  he  is  justly  charged,  would  of 
itself,  if  any  further  argument  were  necessary,  incontestably 
prove  that  decline  of  taste  which  we  deplore,  particularly  when 

1  The  render  may  find  them  affixed  to  some  copies  of  the  "  Institutions." 
They  are  in  that  of  London,  on.  1041. — See  Fabricii  Bibliotheea  Lntina,  1. 

2  L.  x.  c.  1.  »  Tiraboschi,  11.  lv;:J. 


18       LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.    [A.D.  14 

he,  who  took  so  much  pains  to  guard  others  from  its  seductions, 
could  not  himself  escape  the  lure. 

The  panegyric  of  Pliny,  which  is  admired  by  the  young, 
but  read  with  little  pleasure  by  those  whose  taste  is  more 
refined,  and  Avhose  judgment  more  matured,  may  be  esteemed 
a  monument  of  the  highest  excellence  which  could  be  accom- 
plished by  the  talents  of  the  age.  In  his  private  correspond- 
ence1 Pliny  often  bewails  the  decline  of  letters,  expresses  his 
admiration  of  better  days,  and  proposes  Cicero  as  the  model 
of  imitation.  Yet,  at  what  a  distance  does  he  follow  his 
master  !  A  modern  critic2  speaks  thus  of  Pliny  and  his 
panegyric.  "  It  cannot  be  denied,"  says  La  Harpe,  "  that  he 
possesses  extraordinary  brilliancy;  but  he  is  too  ambitious  of 
shining,  and  he  does  nothing  but  shine.  He  shows  a  marked 
solicitude  to  give  point  to  all  his  thoughts,  and  make  them 
strike  by  an  epigrammatic  turn.  This  constancy  of  toil,  this 
profusion  of  glitter,  this  monotony,  as  it  were,  of  genius, 
soon  generate  fatigue.  I  would  wish  to  read  him  as  I  would 
Seneca,  by  fragments.  And  where,  we  naturally  ask,  is  that 
noble  and  elevated  tone,  which  we  admired  in  Cicero;  that 
easy  and  engaging  copiousness;  that  connexion  and  flow  of 
ideas;  that  tissue  in  which  all  is  well  combined,  and  nothing 
confused;  that  energy  of  expression,  and  that  harmony  of 
period,  those  vivid  illustrations  and  glaring  figures,  which 
give  beauty  and  animation  to  every  part?  Instead  of  these 
we  have  a  cluster  of  gems,  a  perpetual  sparkling,  which  for 
a  moment  excites  pleasure,  or  even  admiration,  but  which  at 
last  dazzles  by  its  brilliancy,  and  wearies  by  its  glare,  till  the 
feeh'ng  of  satiety  is  produced.  Then  where  was  the  patience 
of  Trajan,  when  this  discourse  was  pronounced  before  him? — 
The  praise  which  it  contains  of  his  virtues  might,  indeed,  as 
we  can  readily  conceive,  cause  the  emperor  to  feel  less  of  that 
languor  which  a  more  indifferent  reader  is  apt  to  feel.  But 
the  truth  is,  that  the  panegyric  was  not  addressed  to  Trajan 
in  the  prolix  form  which  it  afterward  received." 

C.  Plinius  Secundus,  whose  talents  were  equalled  only  by 
his  virtues,  exhibited  in  early  life  that  assemblage  of  high 
qualities  which  laid  the  foundation  of  his  future  greatness. 
He  was  an  object  of  admiration  in  the  court  even  of  Domi- 
tian;  but  the  death  of  the  tyrant,  probably,  saved  his  life. 

1  See  his  Epistles.  2  Cours  de  Litterature,  par  La  Harpe,  iii.  228. 


TO  476.]  PLINY.  19 

Under  Nerva,  and  his  successor  Trajan,  he  was  promoted  to 
offices  of  great  dignity  and  trust.  His  epistles,  which  must 
be  ever  read  with  pleasure,  show  us  who  were  the  friends 
whom  he  honoured  most;  what  was  the  spirit  and  the  cha- 
racter of  the  times  in  which  he  lived;  and  what  the  vices  owing 
to  the  pernicious  agency  of  which  the  empire  was  hastening 
to  decay.  The  ease  and  elegance  of  these  epistles  have  caused 
some  persons  to  prefer  them  to  those  of  Cicero;  but  the  in- 
stances of  false  taste  by  which  they  are  vitiated  are  too 
striking  even  for  their  excellence  to  conceal. 

In  Pliny,  then,  who  was  the  most  elegant  scholar  of  the 
age,  we  have  the  " honeyed  defects"  the  dulcia  ritia,  which 
rendered  the  style  of  Seneca  mischievously  seductive;  and 
what  was  there  left  which  could  arrest  the  progressive  depra- 
vation of  the  public  taste?  The  names  of  some  orators  are 
recorded  after  the  time  of  Adrian;  but  their  works  have 
perished.  Indeed,  from  the  circumstances  of  the  times,  the 
art  of  oratory  gradually  ceasing  to  be  either  honourable  or 
lucrative,  it  was  at  last  totally  relinquished  by  men  of  emi- 
nence. It  thus  fell  into  the  inferior  hands  of  the  rhetoricians, 
sometimes  called  grammarians,  of  whom  the  historians  speak 
with  praise:  but  were  the  historians  competent  to  judge? 
The  style  of  their  own  works  is  the  best  clue  to  their  com- 
petency.1 

Much  is  said  at  this  period  of  the  eloquence  of  the  Grecian 
sophists,  who  had  long  found  admirers  in  Rome;  but  when 
we  know  that  their  chief  excellence  consisted  in  a  ready 
utterance,  and  a  presumptuous  effrontery  in  haranguing  with 
extemporaneous  carelessness  on  whatever  subject  might  be 
proposed,  the  cause  of  pure  oratory  had,  it  must  be  confessed, 
little  to  gain  from  their  exertions.2 

The  reader  must  now  excuse  me,  if  I  briefly  despatch  the 
remaining  period  of  Latin  eloquence.  Public  schools  of  the 
art  were  still  maintained;  and  there  were  orators  of  whom 
the  times  spoke  in  accents  of  the  highest  praise,  comparing 
them  with,  or  preferring  them  to  Cicero,  or  the  best  models 
of  antiquity.  Amongst  the  orators  of  whom  we  are  speaking, 
the  first  place  was  occupied  by  Aurelius  Symmachus,  towards 
the  close  of  the  fourth  century.  He  was  a  man  of  talents., 

1  See  Hist.  August.  Script.  Ann.  Marcel.  Sidoii.  Apoll. 

2  See  Storia  della  Letter.  Ital.  11.  300 — 317. 

c2 


20  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  14 

which  the  ablest  masters  of  the  age  had  laboured  to  cultivate; 
and  he  filled  the  highest  offices  in  the  state.  The  contem- 
poraries of  Symmachus  are  never  tired  of  loading  him  with 
encomiums.  Ten  books  of  his  Letters  are  still  preserved; 
and  among  them  his  address,  on  a  solemn  occasion,  to  the 
emperor  Theodosius.  As  a  sample  of  his  eloquence,  and  of 
that  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  this  address  may  be  read. 
Erasmus  observes,  that  they  may  admire  Symmachus,  whom 
long,  rather  than  good  speaking  can  delight.1 

Were  the  ties  by  which  all  the  branches  of  knowledge  are 
united,  and  the  general  principles  of  taste,  clearly  discerned, 
we  should  not  require  facts  to  prove  that  the  declension  of 
eloquence  was  accompanied  with  that  of  the  sister  arts. 

The  age,  indeed,  of  genuine  poetry  survived  that  of  elo- 
quence, as  Virgil,  Tibullus,  Horace,  and  Ovid,  who  formed 
the  most  brilliant  aera  of  Roman  poetry,  had  many  years  to 
live,  when  the  loss  of  liberty  had  paralyzed  the  efforts  of  the 
orator,  and  extinguished  the  fire  of  his  eloquence.  But  when 
death  had  consigned  the  poets  of  the  Augustan  age  to  the 
grave,  causes  connected  with  the  state  of  the  times  contributed 
to  prevent  the  expansion  of  poetic  genius  in  their  successors. 
The  illustrious  Germanicus,  indeed,  had  evinced  a  taste  for 
poetry;  but  the  distractions  of  a  military  life  contributed  to 
divert  his  thoughts  from  literary  pursuits. 

This  period  was  distinguished  by  four  epic  poets,  Lucan, 
Valerius  Flaccus.  Statius,  and  Silius  Italicus,  on  whose  merits 
various  judgments  have  been  pronounced.  Many  years  are 
now  passed  since  I  read  them;  and  I  believe  that,  with  the 
exception  of  Lucan,  they  are  read  by  few,  except  professed 
critics  or  antiquaries.  This  may  form  a  sufficient  criterion  of 
their  works. 

Lucan  died  when  in  his  twenty-seventh  year,  and  in  the 
reign  of  Nero.  He  had  imprudently  contended  with  the 
tyrant  himself  for  the  poetic  crown,  and  more  imprudently 
engaged  in  a  conspiracy  against  his  life.  The  immature  age 
of  the  poet  readily  accounts  for  the  imperfections  of  his 
work ;  and  he  might  have  approached  nearer  the  excellence 
of  Virgil  had  he  not  aspired  to  eclipse  his  fame.  By  Quinti- 
lian  he  is  described  to  be  "  ardent  and  impetuous,  great  in  his 

1  Erasmus  in  Ciceronian. — See  on  this  period  Tiraboschi,  ii.  423 — 142; 
on  Symmachus,  Fabric,  Bib.  Lat.  t.  ii. 


TO  476.]  LUCAN.  21 

sentiments,  but  more  fit  to  be  ranked  amongst  orators  than 
poets."1  The  praise  is  feeble.  The  ardour,  however,  and 
impetuosity  of  his  mind  communicate  so  much  energy  to  his 
expressions,  and  so  much  grandeur  to  his  images,  that  he 
sometimes  rises  to  the  sublime.  But  he  knows  not  where  to 
stop;  and  his  judgment  is  not  sufficiently  strong  to  control 
the  extravagance  of  his  imagination.  His  glare  of  colouring 
fatigues;  and  the  natural  interest  of  his  subject  is  weakened 
or  destroyed  by  the  prolixity  of  his  details. 

Impelled  by  the  fire  of  youth,  observes  the  Italian  critic,2 
Lucan  sits  down  to  compose  an  epic  poem  which  shall  leave 
the  -iEneis  behind  it.  But  how  can  this  be  effected?  I  seem 
to  see  a  young  and  inexperienced  sculptor,  before  whose  eyes 
stands  a  Grecian  statue  of  exquisite  workmanship.  He  will 
form  another  that  in  beauty  shall  surpass  it.  But  in  the 
model  there  is  a  proportion  of  parts,  a  force  of  expression,  a 
grace  of  attitude,  which  no  art  can  exceed.  What  then, 
must  be  done?  *  He  has  recourse  to  the  forced  and  the  gigan- 
tic; and  behold  a  colossus  comes  forth,  of  which  the  members 
are  vast,  but  void  of  that  proportion  from  which  beauty 
springs;  of  which  the  attitude  has  energy,  but  an  energy  out 
of  nature;  and  if  the  expression  has  force,  it  is  a  force  which 
indicates  violence  and  distortion.  The  rude  or  unlettered 
spectator,  whose  admiration  is  increased  by  the  physical 
magnitude  of  an  object,  views  the  form  with  wonder,  whilst 
the  man  of  taste  turns  away  from  it  with  disgust.  Such  is 
the  Pharsalia  when  compared  with  the  -ZEneis.  In  Virgil, 
the  characters,  the  descriptions,  the  speeches,  the  narrations, 
are  dictated  by  nature;  and  Nature  herself  is  portrayed  with 
the  force,  the  delicacy,  the  elegance,  which  are  her  essential 
attributes.  But  in  Lucan  all  is  inflated,  is  deformed,  is  gi- 
gantic; his  speeches  are  declamatory,  and  his  descriptions  are 
grotesque. 

If  such  be  the  Pharsalia,  which  is  confessedly  the  best 
production  after  the  days  of  Virgil,  can  we  expect  more  per- 
fection in  the  succeeding  poets?  And  let  me  observe  that,  as 
the  defects,  which  have  been  noticed  in  Lucan,  were  of  the 
same  character  as  those  which  disfigured  the  oratory  of  the 
same  period,  it  is  plain  their  source  was  the  same. 

1  Instit.  1.  x.  c.  J. 

-  Tiraboschi,  ii.  72. — See  also  the  Polymetis  of  Speuce,  Dial,  iv.,  and 
'Fabric.  Bib.  Lat.  i. 


--  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.        [A.D.  14 

From  Valerius  Flaccus,  whose  recent  death,  in  the  reign  of 
Domitian,  Quintilian  laments, l  we  have  a  poem  on  the  expe- 
dition of  the  Argonauts.  The  impression  of  disgust  which 
antes  the  mind,  when,  from  the  beautiful  scenery  of  a  highly 
cultivated  country,  we  enter  on  a  desert,  sterile,  uninhabited, 
and  forlorn,  may,  it  has  been  said,2  aptly  represent  what  is 
felt,  when  from  the  JEneis  of  Virgil  we  pass  to  the  Argo- 
nauties  of  Flaccus.  His  flight  is  always  near  the  ground; 
and  he  must  be  satisfied  to  rank  with  those  who  will  make 
love  to  the  muses  in  despite  of  natural  impediments.  His 
language  is  too  studied;  his  style  unequal,  and  sometimes 
obscure. 

On  the  works  of  Statius,  of  which  the  principal  is  the 
Thedaid,  or  the  conquest  of  Thebes,  a  more  favourable  judg- 
ment is  pronounced.  It  is  allowed  that  he  possessed  the 
talents  of  a  poet;  but  that  the  taste  of  the  age  vitiated  their 
application.  He  was  an  admirer  of  Virgil,  but  he  flattered 
himself  that  he  might  equal  his  greatness  by  tumid  affecta- 
tion. Hence  he  labours  to  be  gigantic  in  his  pace;  and  his 
conceptions  are  monstrous  when  he  thinks  that  they  are  sub- 
lime. Juvenal,  however,  tells  us,3  that  the  Thebaid  was  the 
favourite  study  of  the  Roman  people;  so  much  was  their  at- 
tention excited  by  its  charms.  Need  we  furnish  a  more 
striking  proof  of  the  declining  taste  of  Kome?  And  another 
proof  the  same  Statiuscan  supply;  for,  after  he  had  furnished 
so  much  delight  to  the  people,  and  tilled  the  theatre  with 
applause,  the  satirist  adds,  that  he  wanted  bread.  He  lived 
under  Domitian. 

Fortune  was  more  favourable  to  Silitts  Italieus.  He  had 
been  consul  in  the  last  year  of  Nero,  a  proconsul  in  Asia,  and 

1  Instil.  L  x.  c.  1. 

-  Tiraboschi,  ii.  74.     Other  critics  are  less  severe  ;  see  Spence  ut  ante. 

1  "  Curritur  sul  -vocem  jucundam,  et  carmen  amicae 
Thebaidos,  laetam  fecit  cam  Statins  urbem, 
Promisitqrie  diem ;  tanta  duleedine  captos 
Afficit  IDe  animos,  tantaque  libidine  rulgi 
Auditor."  Sat.  vii.  8vJ,  &c. 

li  When  Statins  fixed  a  morning  to  recite 
His  Thebaid  to  the  town,  with  what  delight 
They  flock' d  to  hear,  with  what  fond  rapture  hung 
On  the  sweet  strains  made  sweeter  by  his  tongue  :" 

The  poet,  some  think,  spoke  ironically.     See  Spence. 


TO  476.]          SILIUS  ITALICUS — JUVENAL PERSIUS.  23 

among  the  lands  which  he  possessed,  as  well  as  houses  stored 
with  books,  and  statues,  and  pictures,  he  particularly  delighted 
in  a  villa,  which  once  belonged  to  Cicero,  and  in  another 
near  Naples,  which  contained  the  tomb  of  Virgil.1  But 
nature  had  denied  him  that  to  which  he  most  aspired,  the 
inspiration  of  a  poet.  The  poem  by  which  he  is  known  as  an 
author,  is  an  account  of  the  second  Punic  War,  in  seventeen 
books,  which  some  have  called  a  gazette  in  verse.  It  is  des- 
titute of  fancy  or  invention,  and  the  narrative  flows  or  stag- 
nates in  a  languid  stream,  which  lulls  to  sleep  rather  than 
awakens  interest.  He  has  not  a  single  quality  which  kindles 
emotion  or  produces  delight.  He  is  uniformly  tedious  and 
insipid.  Silius  patronized  the  arts,  passed  whole  days  in  the 
society  of  the  learned,  and  often  visited  the  tomb  of  the 
Mantuan  bard,  but  without  catching  one  particle  of  his 
inspiration.  He  was  denominated  the  ape  of  Virgil.  He 
saw  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Trajan.2 

To  the  reader  of  classical  discernment  I  shall  leave  the 
obscure  Persius,  and  the  indignant  Juvenal,  whose  satires  he 
will  compare  with  the  terse  and  polished  productions  of 
Horace,  in  the  same  line  of  composition.  The  first  wrote  in 
the  reign  of  Nero,  the  second  in  that  of  Trajan;3  and  if,  as  I 
cannot  doubt,  their  inferiority  to  the  Augustan  model  shall 
be  perceived,  it  may  well  be  imputed  to  their  vain  attempt  to 
surpass  what  Avas  perfect.  But  Juvenal,  nevertheless,  on 
many  accounts,  merits  our  admiration;  his  moral  reflections 
are  as  forcible  as  they  are  true;  and  he  has  sentiments,  the 
energy  of  which  has  never  been  surpassed. 

These,  if  we  except  the  epigrams  of  Martial,  are  the  prin- 
cipal productions  of  the  period  which  we  have  reviewed.  Of 
many  others  the  historians  speak;  and  if  merit  could  be  in- 
ferred from  numbers,  surely  no  age  was  ever  more  rich  in 
poetic  genius.  There  is  a  passage  in  one  of  the  epistles  of 
Pliny4  which  shows,  that  the  Romans,  in  his  time,  had  begun 
to  lose  their  taste  for  public  reading.  "  This  year,"  he  says, 
"  has  proved  extremely  fertile  in  poetical  productions  :  during 
the  whole  month  of  April,  scarcely  a  day  has  passed  in  which 
we  have  not  been  entertained  with  the  recital  of  some  poem. 
Jt  is  a  pleasure  to  me  to  find,  notwithstanding  there  seems  to 

1  Plin.  1.  iii.  p.  vii.     The  letter  may  be  ri-utl  with  pleasure. 

2  See  Fabric.  Bib.  Lat.  1.  »  Ibid.  4  L.  1.  c.  xiii. 


24  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.   14 

be  so  little  disposition  in  the  public  to  attend  assemblies  of 
this  kind,  that  letters  still  flourish,  and  that  men  of  genius  are 
not  discouraged  from  exhibiting  their  performances.  It  is 
visible  that  the  greater  part  of  the  audience  which  is  col- 
lected on  these  occasions  comes  with  reluctance  :  they  loiter 
round  the  place  of  assembly,  join  in  little  parties  of  conversa- 
tion, and  send  every  now  and  then  to  inquire  whether  the 
author  is  come  in,  whether  he  has  read  the  preface,  or  whether 
he  has  almost  finished  the  piece?  Then,  with  an  air  of  the 
greatest  indifference,  they  just  look  in,  and  withdraw  again; 
some  by  stealth,  and  others  with  less  ceremony.  It  was  not 
thus  in  the  time  of  our  ancestors." 

Nothing  will  detain  us  in  the  succeeding  period,  when  even 
the  number  of  poets  had  decreased,  and  the  compositions  of 
the  few  which  have  come  down  to  us  are  said  (for  I  have 
not  read  them)  to  deserve  little  attention.  But,  after  the 
accession  of  Constantine,  when  less  might  be  expected,  we 
open,  not  without  admiration,  the  miscellaneous  works  of 
Claudian.1  He  was  born  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  and  re- 
sided at  Rome  during  that  inauspicious  period  when  Hono- 
rius  held  the  sceptre,  and  the  cries  of  the  barbarians,  Avhich 
menaced  ruin  to  Italy,  might  well  disperse  the  visions  or 
chill  the  transports  of  a  poetical  mind.  Such  were  the  un- 
propitious  circumstances  in  which  he  wrote.  I  know  with 
what  severity  he  is  sometimes  criticised.  The  harmony  of 
his  lines,  observes  La  Harpe,2  resembles  the  tinkling  of  a  bell, 
which  never  varies.  And  the  Italian  writer,3  allowing  that 
he  may  rank  Avith  the  best  poets  after  the  Augustan  age,  says, 
his  genius  was  lively  and  his  fancy  fervid;  but  seldom  does 
he  keep  within  the  limits  which  reason  prescribes  to  those 
faculties.  Like  Lucan  and  Statius,  he  is  impetuously  hurried 
on.  To  judge  from  his  first  rising,  the  clouds  must  be  too 
confined  for  his  flight :  but  his  wings  soon  tire,  till  he  falls 
and  creeps  upon  the  earth. 

The  defects  of  Claudian  are  those  of  a  declining  taste.  But 
if  it  is  considered  that  when  he  wrote  the  Latin  language 
itself  had  lost  its  purity,  that,  though  a  resident  in  Italy,  he 
was  the  native  of  a  distant  country,  and  that  he  had  no  living 
examples  of  a  better  taste  before  his  eyes,  he  seems  entitled 

1  See  Bib.  Lat.  ii.  2  Cours.  de  Litter,  i.  273. 

3  Storia  della  Letter,  ii.  147. 


TO  476.]  DECLINE    OF    HISTORY.  25 

to  no  common  share  of  praise.  In  the  compositions  of 
Claudian,  whatever  may  be  his  imperfections,  the  Latin  muse 
was  entombed  with  honour;  and  our  tears  may  now  be  shed 
upon  her  urn. 

The  reader  who  may  wish  for  a  longer  list  will  turn  to 
the  characters,  which  are  easily  found,  of  Petronius  Arbiter,1 
of  Seneca  the  philosopher  and  poet,  of  Apulius,  of  Olympius 
Nemesianus,  of  Junius  Calpurnius,  and  of  Decimus  Auso- 
nius,  who  lived  at  different  periods  of  the  same  sera,  and 
whose  woi'ks,  no  less  than  those  which  I  have  cited,  would 
serve  to  trace  the  declining  progress  of  the  art. 

I  would  ask  the  reader,  if  he  ever  beheld  an  edifice  of 
admirable  workmanship  verging  to  decay,  its  roof  opening  to 
the  rain,  its  columns  shaken,  its  walls  inclining,  and  the  ivy 
forcing  its  way  through  the  fissures — what  were  the  emotions 
of  his  mind?  Would  they  be  very  different  from  those 
which  he  now  feels,  when,  passing  rapidly  from  object  to 
object,  he  discovers  a  decline  in  all,  and  which  is  more 
deplorable,  inasmuch  as  the  works  of  intellect  may  be  deemed 
more  precious  than  the  works  of  art,  and  their  decay  is  more 
extensively  fatal  to  the  best  interests  of  man?  When  we 
trace  the  progress  of  society,  from  barbarism  to  civilization, 
from  ignorance  to  knowledge,  from  rudeness  to  the  arts  of 
refinement,  all  is  gay  and  cheering;  and  we  are  delighted 
by  each  feature  of  the  scene.  It  is  with  a  pleasure  of  this 
kind  that  we  contemplate  the  progress  of  history  from  its 
first  rude  beginning  till,  proceeding  through  a  series  of 
writers,  it  attained  that  fulness  of  excellence  which  dis- 
tinguished the  historian  of  the  Roman  people.2 

In  treating  the  decline  of  History,  the  Italian  critic3  thus 
feelingly  opens  the  subject:  "  So  calamitous  and  afflicting 
were  the  times  on  which  we  enter,  that  it  were  rather  to 
have  been  wished  no  remembrance  of  them  had  descended  to 
posterity.  But  as  the  unhappy  man  finds  comfort  in  reveal- 
ing his  sorrows,  so,  it  seems,  many  Romans,  having  expe- 
rienced the  weight  of  distress,  were  anxious  that  it  should  not 
be  unknown  to  their  children's  children."  The  history  of 
the  first  Caesars  was  the  subject  on  which  many  wrote: 

['  See,  among  other  authorities,  the  dissertation  of  M.  de  Guerle  on  Pe- 
trouius.] 

2  Titus  Livius.  *  Tiraboschi,  ii.  139. 


26  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.        [A.D.  14 

others,  from  a  higher  date,  traced  the  story  of  the  Roman 
people;  and  others  selected  different  themes.  The  number 
of  these  writers  had  not  been  exceeded  in  any  age;  but  I  fear 
we  must  be  prepared,  among  many  beauties,  to  notice  in  them 
faults  similar  to  those  which  deformed  the  compositions  of 
the  orators  and  the  poets.  Their  compositions  discover  a 
sententious  stateliness,  an  affected  precision,  a  superfluity  of 
ornament,  an  involution  of  phrase,  and  an  obscurity  of  dic- 
tion, which  will  often  baffle  the  most  penetrating  sagacity. 
Cicero  has  said,  that  "  history  amuses,  in  whatever  manner 
it  be  written."  And  so  it  does,  provided  it  be  such  history 
as,  we  may  presume,  that  he  himself  had  read,  in  which  the 
narration  presents  a  simple  but  luminous  statement  of  facts; 
and  where  the  reflections  of  the  writer,  arising  out  of  the 
subject,  are  neither  unnecessarily  nor  affectedly  introduced. 

With  the  names,  the  writings,  and  the  character  of  the 
writings  of  those  authors,  who,  in  the  historical  department, 
served  to  enliven  this  declining  period,  every  scholar  is  well 
acquainted.  He  knows  that  Velleius  Paterculus,  in  the  reign 
of  Tiberius,  wrote  a  history,  chiefly  of  his  own  times,  in 
which  he  basely  flatters  the  tyrant  and  his  infamous  minister, 
Sejanus;  and  that  the  style  of  that  history,  though  often 
glittering  with  ornament,  had  lost  the  simple  elegance  which 
he  had  been  taught  to  admire.  He  knows,  that  contemporary 
with  Paterculus  was  Valerius  Maximus,  who  compiled  a 
work,  in  nine  books,  in  which  he  describes  many  of  the 
sayings  and  actions  of  memorable  men.  Of  this  work  (not 
to  mention  the  want  of  perspicacity  in  the  selection  of  its 
materials)  every  page  announces  the  corruption  of  the  Latin 
idiom.1  Suetonius,  the  friend  of  the  younger  Pliny,  besides 
some  works  of  less  note,  has  left  us  the  Lives  of  the  twelve 
Cassars,  a  compilation,  as  it  has  been  called,  of  secret  anec- 
dotes, which,  if  it  instruct  by  the  veracity,  will  disgust  by 
the  impurity  of  its  details.  It  is  not  characterized  by  an 
affected  brevity  so  much  as  by  a  want  of  energy.2  An  abridg- 
ment of  the  Roman  history,  from  the  foundation  of  the  city 
to  the  reign  of  Augustus,  was  written  by  Annseus  Florus,  in 
the  time  of  Trajan,  which  is  marked  by  the  common  defects 
of  the  age.3 

Of  some  other  writers  on  historical  subjects,  the  names  are 

1  See  Bib.  Lat.  i.  2  Ibid.  3  Ibid. 


TO  476.]  TACITUS.  27 

recorded,  but  the  works  are\lost.  Quintilian  remarks,  that 
in  history  the  Latin  had  shown  themselves  not  inferior  to 
the  Grecian  writers;  and  he  expatiates,  in  the  warmest  strain 
of  panegyric,  on  the  merits  of  Sallust  and  of  Titus  Livius, 
comparing  the  one  with  Thucydides  and  the  other  with 
Herodotus:  but  as  he  approaches  his  own  times,  he  mentions, 
besides  Aufidius  Bassus,  only  Servilius  Novianus,  a  man  of 
resplendent  talents,  but  whose  style  was  less  compressed  than 
the  dignity  of  history  required.1  As  we  have  not  the  works 
of  Novianus,  it  is  not  possible  to  decide  what  that  compres- 
sion was,  the  want  of  which  he  censures;  but  it  is  probable, 
that  the  critic  had  himself  learned  to  admire  the  sententious 
brevity  which,  forsaking  the  copious  perspicuity  of  better 
days,  had  become  the  general  taste. 

Have  I  then  forgotten  Cornelius  Tacitus,  it  will  be  asked  : 
or  do  I  mean  to  pass  him  over  in  silence?  He  has  by  no 
means  escaped  my  recollection;  nor  shall  I  leave  him  unno- 
ticed: but  I  thought,  that  if  I  selected  him  as  a  model  of  the 
historical  taste  of  the  age,  its  beauties  and  its  blemishes 
would  become  more  palpable  and  manifest. 

Tacitus  was  the  favourite  of  many  emperors,  or,  at  least, 
they  promoted  him  to  the  highest  offices  in  the  state.  The 
younger  Pliny  was  amongst  his  friends;  and  that  elegant 
writer  addressed  several  of  his  epistles  to  Tacitus.  From 
the  station  which  Tacitus  occupied,  he  had  means  of  access 
to  accurate  information,  and  his  talents  enabled  him  to  select 
and  record  such  events,  characters,  views  of  human  nature, 
and  motives  of  action,  as  offered  themselves  to  his  observa- 
tion during  the  disastrous  period  of  which  he  wrote.  His 
works,  mutilated  and  imperfect  as  we  possess  them,  are  com- 
prised under  Annals,  from  the  death  of  Augustus  to  that  of 
Nero:  a  History,  beginning  with  the  reign  of  Galba  and 
ending  with  that  of  Domitian,  a  treatise  on  the  Manners  of 
the  Germans,  and  the  Life  of  Agricola.  Of  the  Annals  and 
History  many  entire  books  are  lost.2 

No  author  has  more  frequently  engaged  the  comments  and 
expositions  of  the  learned;  and  none  has  been  more  frequently 
translated.  His  admirers,  with  an  enthusiasm  seldom  equalled, 
have  fancied  that,  without  a  single  blemish,  they  discovered 
in  him  all  the  qualities  which  are  required  in  a  perfect 

1  Instil.  1.  x.  c.  1.  2  See  Bib.  Lat.  i. 


28  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  14 

historian.  "  He  is  accused,"  observes  a  sagacious  critic,1 
"of  having  painted  human  nature  in  colours  of  too  dark  a 
tinge,  that  is,  of  having  viewed  her  with  too  searching  an 
eye.  He  is  said  to  be  obscure,  which  means,  I  believe,  that 
he  did  not  write  for  the  multitude:  and  his  style  is  by  some 
deemed  to  be  too  rapid  and  too  concise,  as  if  to  say  much 
in  few  words  were  not  the  first  quality  of  a  writer."  Another 
critic  of  the  same  nation,2  whose  judgment  I  often  admire, 
hesitates  not  to  declare,  that  the  diction  of  Tacitus  has  the 
energy  of  his  soul;  that  it  is  singularly  picturesque  without 
being  too  figurative,  precise  without  obscurity,  and  nervous 
without  inflation.  He  speaks,  at  the  same  time,  to  the  affections, 
to  the  fancy,  and  to  the  understanding.  Of  the  capacity  of  the 
reader,  he  observes,  we  may  fairly  judge  by  the  opinion  which 
he  forms  of  Tacitus:  for  no  one,  who  is  not  himself  profound, 
can  fathom  the  depth  of  his  reflections.  But  the  secret  magic 
of  his  style  arose  from  the  circumstances  of  his  life,  as  well  as 
from  the  singular  powers  of  his  genius.  He  then  adds,  this 
virtuous  man,  whose  eyes  first  opened  on  the  horrors  of  the 
court  of  Nero;  who  then  beheld  the  ignominy  of  Galba;  the 
gluttony  of  Vitellius;  and  the  rapine  of  Otho;  was  compelled, 
in  a  mature  age,  after  he  had  breathed  the  milder  air  of  the 
reigns  of  Vespasian  and  Titus,  again  to  endure,  and  to  endure 
in  silence,  the  hypocritical  and  jealous  tyranny  of  Domitian. 
His  situation,  as  well  as  the  hopes  of  his  family,  demanded 
that  he  should  not  irritate  the  tyrant,  but  suppress  his  indig- 
nation, and  weep  in  secret  over  the  wounds  of  his  country, 
and  the  blood  of  his  fellow-citizens.  In  these  circumstances, 
Tacitus,  absorbed  in  his  own  reflections,  developed  in  his  his- 
torical compositions  the  feelings  of  indignation  which  pressed 
for  utterance;  and  this  it  is  which  has  given  to  his  style  its 
interest  and  animation.  His  invective  is  not  that  of  a  de- 
claimer,  as  he  was  too  deeply  affected  to  be  declamatory; 
but  he  depicts  in  the  full  colours  of  life  and  truth  whatever 
is  odious  in  tyranny,  or  revolting  in  slavery ;  the  hopes  of  the 
criminal,  the  fears  of  the  innocent,  and  the  dejection  of  the 
virtuous. 

This  eulogy  is  not  void  of  truth;  but  the  praise  must  be 
received  with  some  abatement.     I  have  read  Tacitus,  and  I 

1  D'Alembert,  Melanges  de  Litterat.,  who  translated  select  passages  of  his 
admired  author. 

*  La  Harpe,  Cours  de  Litterat.  iii.  310. 


TO  476.]  TACITUS.  29 

never  read  him  without  delight:  but  this  delight  is  diminished 
by  his  occasional  obscurity,  which  the  sagacity  of  commenta- 
tors has  not  hitherto  been  able  to  dispel.  But  is  this  the 
manner  in  which  history  ought  to  be  written?  Whilst  we  are 
desirous  of  acquiring  the  knowledge  of  facts,  and  of  discrimi- 
nating the  characters,  the  views  and  motives  of  the  principal 
actors,  can  it  be  expedient  that  our  progress  should  be  sus- 
pended by  diction  which  is  enveloped  in  the  shades  of  mystery, 
or  by  a  sort  of  enigmatical  brevity,  of  which  the  meaning  is  a 
matter  of  conjecture  rather  than  of  certainty?  I  do  not  here 
speak  of  such  passages  as  time  and  ignorance  have  mutilated 
or  corrupted,  but  of  the  text,  when  acknowledged  to  be  ge- 
nuine and  entire.  Of  a  Grecian  painter,  it  was  observed, 
intelligitur  plus  semper  quam  pitigitur,  ';  his  meaning  is  much 
fuller  than  his  expression:"  in  an  art  which  is  confined  within 
local  dimensions  of  such  limited  extent,  the  praise  might 
be  just.  But  there  are  no  bounds  to  the  field  of  history; 
and  though  all  need  not  be  said,  yet  nothing  should  be 
omitted,  which  can  serve  to  illustrate  character,  to  develop 
motives,  or  to  give  a  clear  insight  into  the  causes  and  suc- 
cession of  events.  The  reader  will  recollect  a  passage  in 
Quintilian,  in  which,  describing  the  vicious  taste  of  the  age, 
he  says,  that  it  was  thought  by  some,  "  true  genius  Avas  then 
only  shown,  when  genius  was  necessary  to  investigate  the 
sense.''  It  was  in  this  age  that  Tacitus  wrote;  and  we  need 
not  hesitate  to  affirm,  that  he  affected  brevity  and  refine- 
ment in  order  to  exhibit  his  acuteness;  or,  in  other  words, 
that  Cornelius  Tacitus,  with  all  his  excellences,  was  some- 
times not  superior  to  his  contemporaries;  and  that  the  style 
of  his  history  exhibits  undoubted  proofs  of  the  decline  of 
taste. 

The  following  character  by  a  German  author,  now  living,1 
is,  I  think  just: — "Tacitus,"  he  says,  "seems  to  have  made 
Sallust  his  model,  though,  in  his  manner  of  treating  history, 
and  in  his  general  composition,  he  be  himself  original.  He 
paints  as  a  poet  rather  than  as  an  historian,  whilst  he  is  more 
an  orator  than  a  poet;  more  a  moralist,  than  an  orator;  and 
more  than  all,  a  statesman.  Of  a  statesman  he  everywhere 
assumes  the  reflections  and  the  language.  He  surprises,  and 

1  Meusel-  Leitfaden  zur  Geschichte  der  Gelebrsamkeit.  Zweit  Abtlieil. 
p.  441). 


30  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  14 

even  astonishes;  but  addressing  the  imagination,  and  not  the 
heart,  he  seldom  moves.  His  ideas,  besides,  by  a  forced 
brevity  of  expression,  are  so  pressed  together,  as  to  be  in- 
volved in  great  obscurity;  and  the  translator,  to  make  a 
single  line  intelligible,  is  compelled  to  become  a  paraphrast." 

Other  objections  have  been  made.  It  has  been  said,  that, 
in  all  events,  he  professed  to  discover  views  which  probably 
were  not  entertained,  and  designs  which  did  not  exist;  that 
he  seemed  to  imagine  that  the  ordinary  course  of  nature  and 
unpremeditated  occurrences  had  no  influence  in  human  affair? ; 
that  his  representations  of  character  are  depicted  with  too 
much  elaborate  artifice;  and  that  the  originals  had  no  exist- 
ence except  in  the  imagination  of  the  historian.  On  these 
objections,  which  are  not  unfounded,  I  shall  not  dwell;  but  I 
will  beg  leave  to  add,  that  he  occasionally  neglected  those 
sources  of  accurate  information  which  were  easily  accessible, 
and  had  recourse  to  fable  or  surmise.  I  here  allude  chiefly 
to  his  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Jewish  nation  and  of  its 
rites,1  than  which  nothing  can  be  less  authentic,  whilst  the 
sacred  books  of  the  Jews  were  at  that  time  everywhere  open 
to  inspection,  and  individuals  of  that  nation  were  to  be 
found  in  every  city  of  the  empire.  But  he  despised  that 
people,  and  was  anxious  to  render  their  origin  an  object  of 
contempt. 

I  will  finally  observe,  that  the  insurmountable  difficulties 
which  the  translators  of  Tacitus  have  universally  experienced,2 
may  be  considered  as  a  proof,  that  his  originality,  in  what- 
ever it  consisted,  was  the  offspring  rather  of  affected  refine- 
ment than  of  powerful  genius  or  profound  thought.  The 
French  critic,  whom  I  quoted,  would  reply,  that  this  judg- 
ment was  dictated  by  shallowness  of  intellect,  and  that  no 
one  should  pronounce  on  the  merits  of  Tacitus  who  is  not 
animated  by  the  spirit  which  pervades  his  compositions.  Be- 
fore I  quit  this  subject  I  will,  however,  declare,  that  what- 
ever intricacies  or  obscurities  may  perplex  the  reader  of 
Tacitus,  he  will  find  the  labour  more  than  compensated  by 
the  beauties  with  which  his  works  abound. 

1  Hist.  1.  v. 

2  I  may  mention,  among  the  innumerable  translations,  tbe  late  one,  in 
our  language,  by  Mr.  Murpby,  which,  certainly  as  an  interesting  narration, 
may  be  read  with  pleasure ;  but  it  is  not  Tacitus.     The  Italian  Davauzati 
has  attempted  more ;  but  he,  it  is  said,  is  not  intelligible. 


TO  476.]  THE    HISTORIA    AUGUSTA.  31 

It  is  not  agreed  among  the  learned  who  Quintus  Curtius 
was,  or  at  what  time  he  lived.  His  History,  in  ten  books,  of 
the  exploits  of  Alexander,  though  replete  with  many  beauties, 
does  not,  in  the  opinion  of  sober  critics,  entitle  him  to  a  place 
of  high  antiquity;  and,  perhaps,  of  this  opinion  no  more  con- 
vincing proof  could  be  given,  than  that,  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  a  Spanish  king  should  have  been  so  delighted  with 
its  perusal  as  to  have  ascribed  to  it  the  recovery  of  his 
health.  The  genuine  beauties  of  historical  composition  were 
not  likely  to  have  so  powerfully  allured  the  attention  of  a 
barbarous  prince.1  It  has  been  thought  rather  a  romance 
than  a  genuine  history. 

If  we  except  Justin,  'though  it  be  not  accurately  known 
when  he  nourished,  and  whose  abridgment  of  general  history 
is  not  greatly  admired,2  we  have  now  a  dreary  chasm  to 
pass  till  we  come  to  the  reign  of  Diocletian.  At  this  period, 
or  not  long  afterwards,  we  meet  the  authors  of  the  Historia 
Augusta,  which  is  a  valuable  collection,  as  it  gives  us  the  lives 
of  the  preceding  emperors,  of  whom  we  should  otherwise 
have  had  no  account.  But  the  narrations  of  these  writers  is 
sometimes  confused  and  inaccurate,  and  it  is  vain  to  expect 
purity  of  diction,  or  elegance  of  style.  The  authors  of  the 
Historia  Augusta  are  generally  supposed  to  be  six,  if  there  be 
not  some  mistake  in  the  names,  JElius  Spartianus,  Julius 
Capitolinus,  ^Elius  Lampridius,  Vulcatius  Gallicanus,  Tre- 
bellius  Pollio,  and  Flavius  Vopiscus.3 

After  Constantine,  and  during  the  reigns  of  his  successors, 
we  seek  in  vain  for  an  historian  to  show  us,  who  were  the 
people,  often  conquerors,  and  sometimes  conquered,  that,  from 
all  side.-,  precipitated  themselves  upon  the  empire;  whence 
they  came,  and  what  were  their  laws,  manners,  and  customs; 
what  were  the  real  characters  of  the  emperors  and  their 
ministers,  or  of  such  individuals  as  served  to  augment  or  to 
mitigate  the  evils  of  the  period.4  No  such  historian  is  found. 
Aurelius  Victor,  indeed,  who  lived  about  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century,  has  written  the  Lives  of  the  emperors,  from 
Augustus  to  Constantius;  and  his  contemporary  Eutropius 
has  furnished  an  epitome  of  Roman  history,  from  its  origin  to 

1  See  Bib.  Lat.  i.         Storia  della  Letter,  ii.  144—154. 

*  Bib.  Lat.  ii. 

*  Ibid.     [There  is  a  French  translation  of  the  Scriptores  Hist.  Augustas, 
by  Molines.j  4  Storia  della  Letterat.  ii.  450. 


32  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.        [A.D.     14 

a  somewhat  later  era:1  but  Ammianus  Marcellinus  becomes 
the  principal  object  of  our  attention. 

Ammianus  Marcellinus  was  by  birth  a  Greek,  and  from  the 
city  of  Antioch;  but  he  resided  many  years  in  Rome,  where 
he  was  greatly  admired,  and  where  he  wrote  his  History  in 
the  Latin  language.  It  commenced  with  the  reign  of  Nerva, 
and  ended  with  that  of  Valens  in  the  year  378.  It  originally 
consisted  of  thirty-one  books,  of  which  thirteen  have  perished. 
It  is  generally  agreed,  that  solid  truth  and  accurate  discern- 
ment are  to  be  found  in  Ammianus;  but  his  style  is  rugged 
and  inharmonious.  This  may  be  pardoned  in  a  Greek  and  a 
soldier;  but  his  useless  digressions,  which  are  evidently 
designed  to  display  his  learning,  weary  and  disgust.  The 
declamatory  manner,  also,  in  which  he  relates  the  most  or- 
dinary incidents,  is  contrary  to  that  sober  dignity  which  history 
should  maintain;  but  it  is  known  that  he  composed  his  work 
for  public  recitation,  and  that  his  readings  were  attended 
and  applauded.2  The  applause  at  once  proves,  if  any  proof 
were  wanting,  that  the  orator  and  his  audience  were  equally 
void  of  taste.  His  knowledge  of  geography  merits  commen- 
dation. 

But  I  must  not  omit  Paulus  Orosius,  a  Spaniard,  and  the 
author  of  a  History  in  seven  books,  written  with  a  view  to 
repel  the  charge  of  the  Gentiles,  that  the  calamities  which 
the  empire  at  that  time  endured  arose  from  the  establishment 
of  Christianity.  He  shows  that  wars,  insurrections,  and 
feuds,  had  at  all  times  caused  the  miseries  of  the  human  race. 
Orosius  lived  early  in  the  fifth  century,  and  was  known 
to  St.  Jerom  and  the  African  bishop  St.  Angustin,  at  whose 
recommendation  he  wrote  his  History.  His  work  contains 
some  useful  information,  but  it  is  deformed  by  his  chrono- 
logical negligence,  and  his  puerile  credulity.  This  was, 
perhaps,  what  gave  it  a  peculiar  relish  amongst  the  scholars, 
if  I  may  so  call  them,  of  the  Middle  Ages,  when  the  History 
of  Orosius  was  very  generally  read,  and  made  the  model  of 
their  chronicles. 

If  the  studies  best  adapted,  by  their  influence  on  the  affec- 
tions of  the  mind,  to  command  attention,  could  not  resist  the 
causes  of  decline,  it  will  be  idle  to  look  for  stability  in  graver 

1  Bib.  Lat.  ii. 

2  Hadrian.  Vales.  Pref.  nd  Amm.  Marcel.  Bib.  Lat.  ii. 


LITERARY   HISTORY 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES. 


BOOK    I. 

VIEW  OF  THE  DECLINE  OF  LITERATURE  AND  THE  ARTS, 
FROM  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  AUGUSTUS,  TO  THE 
FALL  OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE,  IN  476. 


Sketch  of  the  state  of  letters  in  the  Augustan  age — The  causes  of  their 
rise  briefly  examined — First  period  of  their  decline — Second  period — 
Third  period — Decline  of  eloquence — Of  poetry — Of  history — Of  philo  • 
sophy,  &c. — The  state  of  the  libraries — Decline  of  the  polite  arts — The 
state  of  literature  in  Italy  and  in  the  distant  provinces — The  causes  of 
the  decline  of  literature  and  the  arts — Was  literature  affected  by  the 
establishment  of  Christianity  ? — The  state  of  Grecian  literature  during 
the  same  period. 

THE  subject  which  I  have  proposed  to  treat  in  the  present 
work  is  so  extensive  in  itself,  that  I  am  unwilling  to  increase 
its  bulk  with  any  matter  which  is  foreign  to  my  purpose,  or 
not  essentially  incorporated  in  the  plan  which  I  have  at- 
tempted to  execute.  I  shall  not  therefore  delineate  the  golden 
period  of  Roman  literature,  from  the  fall  of  Carthage  to  the 
death  of  Augustus,  comprising  an  era  of  a  little  more  than  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years.  After  the  conquest  of  Greece,  the 
military  genius  of  the  Romans  became  tempered  by  some- 
thing of  a  literary  spirit;  and  the  arts  and  sciences,  which 
hitherto  had  languished  in  neglect,  or  been  rejected  with 
scorn,  began  to  be  cherished  with  fondness  and  cultivated 
with  assiduity.  The  new  ardour  which  was  excited  soon 
became  manifest  in  the  blaze  of  intellectual  excellence  which 


2  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D.  14 

was  produced.  All  the  force  and  the  blandishments  of 
poetry  have  been  concentrated  in  the  works  of  Lucretius,  of 
Virgil,  and  of  Horace;  while  the  Gracchi,  Hortensius,  Julius 
Ccesar,1  and  above  all,  Cicero,  attained  to  such  a  degree  of 
excellence  in  oratory,  as  to  leave  it  doubtful  whether  the 
palin  of  eloquence  is  due  to  them  or  to  their  Grecian  masters. 
Sallust  and  Livy,  and  particularly  the  latter,  are  models  of 
historical  composition.  Cicero  taught  the  philosophy  of 
Greece  to  speak  the  language  of  Rome,  whilst  he  rendered 
the  doctrines  of  the  Grecian  sages  more  perspicuous  and  cap- 
tivating than  they  were  found  even  in  their  native  idiom.  In 
architecture,  Vitruvius  laid  down  the  rules  of  design  and  just 
proportion.  Other  studies  were  equally  encouraged.  In  the 
annals  of  literary  patronage  the  name  of  Maecenas  will  long 
be  remembered:  even  Augustus  himself,  whilst  he  held  the 
reins  of  government,  either  cultivated  by  his  genius,  or  pro- 
tected by  his  favour,  every  laudable  pursuit.2  Applause, 
rewards,  and  honours,  failed  not  to  attend  the  public  instruc- 
tors of  youth,  among  whom  were  sometimes  found  men  of 
exalted  science. 

Of  the  estimation  in  which  the  polite  arts  were  held,  we 
may  form  some  idea  from  the  rapacity  with  which  the  cities 
of  Greece  were  plundered,  and  collections  of  statues  made. 
And  this  might  be  a  principal  cause  why  Rome,  at  this  .time, 
satisfied  with  the  easy  means  of  procurement,  had  herself  few 
artists  whose  names  are  recorded.3  In  a  moment  of  strange 
alienation  of  mind,  or  of  abject  adulation,  Virgil  indeed  hesi- 
tates not,  in  the  most  exquisite  strains  of  poesy,  to  speak 
slightingly  of  the  arts,  and  even  of  oratory;  and  to  represent 
no  pursuit  as  becoming  the  majesty  of  a  Roman,  but  to  hold 
the  sceptre  of  command,  to  dictate  laws,  to  spare  the  prostrate, 
and  to  humble  the  proud.  Those  are  the  pursuits  which  he 
recommends  as  peculiarly  worthy  the  ambition  of  his  fellow- 
citizens.4  But  if  the  sweets  of  patronage  or  the  dread  of 
despotism  could  vitiate  a  mind  of  so  much  purity,  or  degrade 


'  See  Cicero,  de  clar.  Orat.  pass.  *  Sueton.  in  Aug.  n.  89. 

3  Winckelman,  Storia  delle  arti,  T.  ii. 

4  "  Excudent  alii  spirantia  mollius  sera, 

Credo  equidem,  vivos  ducent  de  marmore  vultus ; 
Orabunt  causas  melius.     Caelique  meatus 
Describent  radio,  et  surgentia  sidera  dicent : 


TO  476.]  THE  ROMANS  AS  CONQUERORS.  3 

one  of  so  much  sublimity  as  that  of  Virgil,  was  it  not  even 
then  a  melancholy  presage  that  the  Romans  had  reached  their 
highest  point  of  intellectual  elevation? 

Hitherto  Rome  had  been,  and  continued  to  be,  the  seat  of 
learning,  and  the  centre  of  the  arts:  but  they  visited,  in 
their  progress,  the  neighbouring  cities,  and  from  them  passed 
*  to  the  remoter  provinces.  When  her  arms  had  surmounted 
the  Alps,  and  the  more  western  countries,  discomfited  by 
repeated  victories,  could  offer  no  further  resistance,  she  had 
recourse  to  her  usual  and  enlightened  policy  of  civilizing 
those  whom  she  had  vanquished,  and  of  extending  the  social 
habits  and  the  civil  jurisprudence  with  the  arts,  the  sciences, 
and  the  language  of  Rome,  to  the  extremities  of  the  empire. 
For  the  gross  manners  of  barbarians  she  substituted  those  of 
the  most  polished  capital  in  the  world;  for  the  rough  and  in- 
harmonious accents  of  an  uncultivated  dialect,  she  habituated 
the  ear  to  the  softer  melody  of  the  Latin  tongue ;  and  when 
she  had  allured  them  to  the  perusal,  she  laid  before  them  the 
pages  of  her  admired  poets,  her  historians,  and  her  philoso- 
phers; and,  in  exchange  for  the  rude  edifices  of  their  fathers, 
she  displayed  the  beautiful  proportions  of  architectural  design. 
Europe,  say  the  historians,  began  to  breathe  and  to  recover 
strength;  agriculture  was  encouraged;  population  increased; 
the  ruined  cities  were  rebuilt;  new  towns  were  founded; 
and,  an  appearance  of  prosperity  succeeding,  the  havoc  of  war 
was,  in  some  degree,  repaired.'2  And  indeed,  when  at  this 
remote  period  we  survey  in  their  temples,  their  amphitheatres, 
their  aqueducts,  the  mere  ruins  of  the  gorgeous  structures 
which  were  raised  by  that  mighty  people,  we  feel  compelled 
to  acknowledge,  that  though  misery  and  destruction  at  first 
followed  the  track  of  their  arms,  it  was  afterwards  succeeded 

Tu  regere  imperio  populos,  Romane,  memento  ; 
Hae  tibi  erunt  urtes  ;  pacisque  impouere  morem, 
Parcere  subjectis,  et  debellare  superbos." — jEneid,  vi. 

"  Others  more  soft  shall  carve  the  breathing  brass ; 
Niiy,  living  looks,  I  think,  from  marble  draw  ; 
Plead  causes  better ;  with  a  wand  describe 
The  heavenly  roads,  and  trnce  the  rising  stars. 
Roman,  remember  thou  to  rnle  the  world : 
Be  these  thy  arts,  to  fix  the  laws  of  peace, 
To  spare  the  suppliant,  and  confound  the  proud." 

2  Dr.  Robertson,  View  of  the  State  of  Europe,  i.  2. 

B  2 


4  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D.  14 

by  happiness  and  abundance;  and  that  they  were  not  un- 
worthy of  the  universal  dominion  which  they  had  acquired. 

I  have  somewhere  seen  an  opinion  hazarded,  that  it  would 
have  been  well  for  the  state  of  man,  had  Carthage  triumphed, 
and  the  Roman  power  been  subdued.  It  has  been  supposed 
that,  compared  with  that  of  the  sword,  the  spirit  of  commerce 
is  mild  and  beneficent;  that,  acting  under  the  influence  of  4 
this  spirit,  Carthage  would  have  respected  the  rights  of 
nations,  and  have  promoted,  as  herself  interested  in  the  event, 
their  greater  prosperity;  that  by  her,  nautical  science  would 
have  been  advanced,  and  new  regions  discovered,  by  which  a 
more  early  and  general  intercourse  would  have  taken  place 
amongst  nations,  the  condition  of  mankind  would  have  been 
improved,  and  the  arts  of  peace  more  generally  cultivated. 
The  theory  is  pleasing,  but  it  is  not  in  unison  with  the  con- 
duct of  commercial  nations.  Their  spirit  is  less  often  mild 
and  beneficent,  than  selfish,  rapacious,  and  mercenary.  For 
them  letters  have  few  charms;  and  the  culture  of  the  nobler 
arts  is  apt  to  be  neglected  in  the  pursuit  of  sordid  pelf. 

Tacitus,  in  detailing  the  achievements  of  his  Agricola  in 
Britain,  has  a  passage  which  illustrates  the  conduct  of  the 
Romans  in  their  conquests. 

"  The  following  winter  was  devoted  to  points  of  the  highest 
utility  and  importance.  In  order  to  allure  the  scattered 
population  of  the  country  from  the  predatory  habits  to  which 
they  were  accustomed,  to  more  pacific  and  civilized  pursuits, 
Agricola  laboured  to  incite  them  by  individual  persuasion  and 
public  assistance,  to  erect  towns,  and  adorn  them  with  temples 
and  porticos.  He  praised  the  willing  and  he  reproved  the 
sluggish,  till  the  rivalry  of  honour  operated  like  the  feeling 
of  duty,  or  the  stimulus  of  necessity.  The  next  object  of  his 
policy  was  to  inspire  a  passion  for  letters  in  the  sons  of  the 
nobility.  The  genius  of  the  Britons  appeared  to  him  superior 
to  that  of  the  Gauls;  for  the  former  had  no  sooner  learned 
the  language  of  Rome,  than  they  discovered  a  desire  to  im- 
prove it  into  eloquence.  Our  fashions  rose  in  their  esteem; 
the  toga  was  frequently  seen  among  them;  and  by  degrees 
they  adopted  our  porticos  and  baths,  the  refinements  of  our 
architecture,  and  the  embellishments  of  our  luxury.  But 
what  the  thoughtless  and  the  ignorant  considered  as  the 
charm  of  polished  life,  was  in  fact  only  an  indication  of  the 
loss  of  their  liberty  and  independence."  1 
1  Vita  Agric.  c.  21. 


T0476.]  RISE  OF  ROMAN  LITERATURE.  5 

But  what  is  human  must  ever  fluctuate;  and  the  progress 
of  learning  lias  been  ingeniously  represented  as  a  curved  line, 
which,  having  reached  its  greatest  altitude,  again  descends  to 
the  plane  from  which  it  rose.  Whilst  the  Romans  were  dif- 
fusing a  taste  for  letters,  and  for  the  arts  of  civilized  life  over 
the  distant  provinces,  those  letters  and  those  arts  were  rapidly 
verging  to  decline  within  the  confines  of  Italy,  and  even 
within  the  walls  of  the  capital.  The  perfect  models  of  Roman 
eloquence  which  had  been  furnished  by  Cicero,  seemed  to  be 
left  only  to  shame  the  puny  efforts  of  his  followers.  The  loss 
of  liberty  and  the  extinction  of  public  spirit,  had  put  an  end 
to  that  freedom  of  thought  and  grandeur  of  sentiment  amongst 
the  Romans,  without  which  public  speaking  soon  becomes 
only  a  vapid  contest  of  sophistry  or  adulation.  Cicero  him- 
self was  not  unconscious  of  the  operation  of  those  causes 
which,  in  his  time,  had  secretly  begun  to  corrupt  the  genius 
of  Roman  eloquence.  To  the  intellectual  pre-eminence  of 
the  Greeks  he  was  never  sparing  of  his  praise;  but  he  thought 
that  in  oratory  the  Romans  had  nobly  struggled  with  them 
for  the  palm  of  victory.  "  Yet,  in  this  very  faculty,"  said 
he,  "  in  which  we  have  advanced  from  the  most  imperfect 
beginnings  to  the  highest  excellence,  we  may,  as  in  all  human 
things,  soon  expect  to  see  symptoms  of  decrepitude  and  the 
process  of  decay."  l 

The  declension  of  eloquence,  of  which  so  many  motives  of 
emolument  and  of  fame  conspired  to  promote  the  culture, 
might  naturally  be  expected  to  be  accompanied  with  the  fall 
of  many  sister  arts.  Here,  however,  a  question  presents  itself 
which  is  not  easy  to  be  solved,  and  which  I  shall  do  little 
more  than  state.  What,  it  may  be  asked,  were  the  causes 
that,  at  this  period,  had  carried  literature  to  so  high  a  degree 
of  excellence  ?  Many,  doubtless,  were  those  causes  arising 
from  a  fortunate  combination  of  circumstances,  the  principal 
of  which  may  be  referred,  I  think,  as  Cicero  often  confesses, 
to  the  habit  of  frequenting  the  Greek  schools,  and  the  con- 
sequent admiration  of  the  perfect  models,  in  every  art,  which 
were  there  exhibited.  Curiosity  was  thus  stimulated;  and 
emulation  was  gradually  spread  from  breast  to  breast,  till  a 
vivid  desire  was  excited  to  acquire  in  the  pursuits  of  literature 
and  the  arts,  the  same  distinction  which  they  had  already 
attained  by  their  military  achievements. 

1  Tuscul.  1.  1.  n.  3.— 1.  11.  n.  -2. 


fi  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D.   14 

The  history  of  the  decline  of  letters,  as  they  regard  Italy, 
has  been  treated  in  a  manner  at  once  so  masterly  and  copious, 
by  a  late  Italian  author,1  that  I  might  deservedly  be  accused 
of  arrogance,  were  I  to  neglect  his  sources  of  information; 
though  I  should,  perhaps,  be  charged  with  negligence  of 
research  if  I  employed  them  without  reserve.  Tiraboschi 
divides  the  whole  period,  from  the  death  of  Augustus  (which 
coincides  with  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  Christian  tera)  to  the 
fall  of  the  Western  Empire  in  476,  into  three  epochs,  in  each 
of  which,  having  first  exhibited  a  short  view  of  the  character 
and  conduct  of  the  successive  emperors  in  regard  to  science 
and  the  arts,  he  details,  under  separate  heads,  the  vicissitudes 
of  literature,  and  the  stages  of  its  decline.2 

When  public  liberty  was  extinct,  it  will  readily  be  conceived 
how  great  must  have  been  the  influence  of  the  imperial  will 
on  the  state  of  learning,  as  it  was  either  neglected,  oppressed, 
or  encouraged,  according  to  the  fluctuations  of  caprice, 
aversion,  or  regard.  The  mind,  in  general,  turns  from  the 
race  of  the  Caesars  with  disgust,  though  some  of  them,  as 
Tiberius  and  Claudius,  were  not  devoid  of  literary  acquire- 
ments.3 It  is  with  some  pleasure  that  we  dwell  on  the  at- 
tempts of  Vespasian  to  repair  the  evils  of  his  predecessors, 
but  Titus  is  the  subject  of  more  pleasurable  contemplation.4 
He  was  an  amiable  prince,  and  an  accomplished  scholar;  but 
the  fates  seemed  only  to  show  him  to  the  earth,  that  his  loss 
might  be  deplored.  After  the  death  of  the  tyrant  Domitian, 
we  welcome  the  reigns  of  Nerva,  of  Trajan,  and,  may  I  say, 
of  Adrian?  Adrian  was,  indeed,  learned;  but  his  erudition 
was  tinctured  with  a  jealousy  of  the  literary  fame  of  others, 
which  bordered  upon  meanness,  and  was  totally  unworthy  of 
a  sovereign.  Such  was  his  jaundiced  taste,  that  he  preferred 
the  elder  Cato  to  Cicero;  and  Ennius  to  Virgil;  and  even  the 
names  of  Homer  and  of  Plato  excited  his  disgust.5  Trajan, 
bred  from  his  earliest  youth  to  the  profession  of  arms,  and  rank- 
ing with  the  first  generals  of  antiquity,  had  not  a  sufficiency 
of  leisure  for  the  acquisition  of  learning;  but  he  wanted  not 
judgment  to  distinguish,  nor  munificence  to  reward,  those  by 
whom  it  was  possessed.  The  scholars,  not  only  of  Rome,  but 
of  Greece,  were  selected  as  the  objects  of  his  patronage,  and 
equally  felt  the  effects  of  his  liberality. 

1  Tiraboschi,  Storia  della  Letteratura  Italiana.  -  T.  11. 

3  Sueton.  m  Tib.  et  Claud.       4  Id.  in  Tit.      5  -<£lius  Spartiau.  in  Adrian. 


TO  476.]  DECLINE  OF  ROMAN  LITERATURE.  7 

A  little  more  than  a  hundred  years  had  elapsed,  for 
Adrian  died  in  138;  and  if  learning,  during  so  short  a  period, 
as  we  shall  soon  see,  had  sensibly  declined,  want  of  liberty 
rather  than  want  of  imperial  encouragement  was  the  cause. 
The  great  men  in  the  age  of  Augustus  had  received  the  first 
impulse  to  their  genius  before  the  destruction  of  the  republic; 
and  the  eifects  of  the  spirit  of  liberty,  in  some  degree,  re- 
mained after  the  ancient  constitution  had  degenerated  into  an 
absolute  monarchy.  When  suspicion  was  universally  excited, 
the  character  alone  of  being  learned  could  hardly  fail  to 
awaken  jealousy;  and  the  annals  of  the  times  have  recorded 
the  names  of  many  eminent  scholars,  who  became  the 
victims  of  a  tyrant's  fears.1  A  sensitive  timidity,  rather 
than  a  robust  hardihood  of  character,  is  too  often  the  result 
of  solitary  application ;  and  to  that  timidity  may  be  ascribed 
the  adulatory  baseness,  by  which  the  writings  of  man} 
authors  at  that  time  were  disgraced.  Velleius  Paterculus 
did  not  blush  to  praise  Tiberius,  and  his  band  of  courtiers; 
nor  Quintilian  to  extol  even  the  genius  of  Domitian.2  Under 
such  leaders,  the  political  and  judicial  constitution  of  the 
empire  became  a  prey  to  every  assailant,  whilst  internal  dis- 
cord, vitiated  manners,  and  an  unbounded  luxury,  gave  new 
strength  to  the  wasting  force  of  profligacy  and  corruption.3 

If  anything  could  have  rescued  from  merited  reproach 
the  name  of  Adrian,  it  would  have  been  the  adoption  of 
Antoninus  Pius.  Endowed  by  nature  with  superior  talents, 
which  had  been  carefully  improved  by  cultivation,  and  pos- 
sessing an  easy  flow  of  eloquence,  Antoninus,  amidst  the 
cares  of  empire,  could  find  time  for  literary  pursuits;  but  it 
is  related  of  him  as  principally  praiseworthy,  that,  on  the 
professors  of  the  arts,  whom  he  established  in  Rome  and  in 
the  provinces,  he  bestowed  stipends,  honours,  and  a  variety 
of  privileges.4  Marcus  Aurelius,  a  name  dear  to  virtue  and 
to  science,  pursued  the  same  path,  and  sought  glory  by  the 
same  honourable  toils.  He  had  been  tutored,  from  early 
youth,  in  all  the  branches  of  elegant  literature;  but  his  mind, 
says  the  historian,5  was  addicted  to  serious  reflection;  and  he 
often  neglected  the  captivating  society  of  the  Muses  to  court 

1  Corn.  Tacit.  Annal.  Sueton.  ill  Caligul. 

-  \V1.  I'ateiv.  (juintil.  Instil,  iv.  1.  x.  1.         3  Juvenal,  Satyr,  pnfsini. 

*  Julius  Capitolin.  in  Antonin  *  Id.  in  M.  Antonin. 


8  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   14 

the  fellowship  of  the  severe  disciples  of  Zeno.  In  the  schools 
of  the  Stoics  he  experienced  his  greatest  delight;  and  he 
modelled  his  conduct  by  their  precepts.  Notwithstanding 
this  preference,  the  masters  in  every  science  were  objects  of 
his  favour;  and  it  is  amusing  to  read  of  the  honours  which 
he  conferred.  To  one  he  raised  a  statue  in  the  senate;  a 
second  was  made  a  proconsul;  and  he  twice  promoted  a 
third  to  the  consular  dignity.  Their  images  were  suffered 
to  repose  with  those  of  his  tutelary  deities;  and  he  offered 
victims,  and  strewed  flowers,  on  their  tombs.1 

Of  the  persons  who  were  thus  honoured  by  imperial  pa- 
tronage, few  could  make  pretensions  to  classical  elegance; 
and  many,  of  whom  the  greater  number  were  Greeks,  clothed 
in  the  philosophic  garb,  devoted  their  lives  to  the  severer 
studies;  or,  in  order  to  secure  the  countenance  of  their  sove- 
reign, affected  the  austerity  of  his  school.  If  Marcus  Aure- 
lius  returned  thanks  to  the  gods  for  having  weaned  him  from 
the  allurements  of  poetry  and  eloquence,  his  subjects  would 
be  less  disposed  to  cultivate  those  arts  which  he  had  re- 
nounced. 

At  the  name  of  Commodus,  the  son  of  Aurelius,  and  of 
the  cruel  Septimus  Severus,  of  Caracalla,  |and  of  the  disso- 
lute Elagabalus,  science  hangs  her  head;  nor,  in  the  suc- 
ceeding reigns,  does  she  find  much  ground  for  comfort, 
though  Alexander  Severus,  and  a  few  others,  were  well 
inclined  to  espouse  her  cause.2  But  it  was  observed,  that  an 
immature  death  too  often  abridged  the  lives  of  those,  from 
whose  virtues,  or  from  whose  talents,  some  good  might  have 
been  expected.  From  Diocletian,  or  his  colleagues  in  the 
empire,  whom  no  education  had  refined,  and  who  were  little 
more  than  soldiers  of  fortune,  what  good  could  be  expected  to 
proceed?  The  school  of  arms  is  not  the  school  of  letters;  and 
whatever  had  been  their  disposition,  they  were  too  much 
involved  in  civil  broils,  and  absorbed  in  the  interests  of  am- 
bition, to  attend  to  those  of  literature  and  science. 

In  this  rapid  glance  over  a  period  of  somewhat  more  than  a 
hundred  and  seventy  years,  what  a  scene  has  the  eye  sur- 
veyed! The  greatest  portion  of  it  is  filled  with  conspiracies 
and  seditions,  bloodshed  and  devastation  of  all  kinds.  Suc- 

1  Julius  Capitolin.  in  M.  Antonin. 

2  See  their  respective  historians  among  the  Angustse  Histories  Scriptores. 


TO  476.]  DECLINE  OF  ROMAN  LITERATURE.  9 

cessive  competitors  were  continually  struggling  for  empire, 
and  he,  who'  to-day  was  seen  trodden  in  the  dust,  had  but  a 
few  days  before  been  raised  by  the  legions  to  the  throne. 

A  new  order  of  things  and  a  more  pleasurable  prospect 
now  open  before  us.  We  behold  a  Christian  emperor,  who 
was  adorned  with  those  virtues,  military  and  civil,  which 
could  command  the  respect  of  distant  nations,  and  the  love 
of  his  subjects,  at  the  death  of  Licinius,  invested  with  the 
sceptre  of  the  Roman  world.  But  were  letters  and  the 
polite  arts  as  dear  to  Constantine  as  the  general  interests  of 
the  vast  society,  to  the  superintendence  of  which  he  had 
been  called?  If  we  may  believe  the  historian  of  his  life,1 
who  is  certainly  sometimes  too  encomiastic,  letters  and  the 
arts  were  the  object  of  his  fond  solicitude.  His  mind  had 
been  early  imbued  with  a  tincture  of  learning;  he  afterwards 
cultivated  eloquence,  and  composed  in  the  Latin  language; 
and  the  decrees  published  by  him  in  favour  of  the  professors 
of  the  learned  arts,  which  may  still  be  read,2  are  an  incon- 
testable proof  of  his  good-will.  But  Rome,  and  I  may  say 
the  western  world,  has  a  charge  against  him  which  can  never 
be  effaced;  he  removed  the  seat  of  empire  to  Byzantium. 
The  charge  is  thus  justly  stated  by  a  modern  writer.3  The 
city  of  Constantinople,  he  observes,  founded  as  a  rival  to 
Rome,  and  chosen  for  the  imperial  residence,  proved  a  source 
of  fatal  evils  to  the  ancient  capital,  to  Italy,  and  to  its  litera- 
ture. Rome  hitherto  had  been  deemed  the  metropolis  of 
the  world;  but  the  attention  of  mankind  was  soon  attracted 
to  the  new  imperial  residence.  All  affairs  of  moment  were 
transacted  at  Constantinople,  which  became  the  general  re- 
sort of  persons  of  eminence  in  all  ranks  and  professions;  and 
what  Rome  had  been  was  seen  only  in  the  dreary  pomp  of 
her  edifices,  and  the  silent  magnificence  of  her  streets. 
Literature  also  forsook  her  former  abode,  and  whither  were 
her  professors  likely  to  retire  but  to  the  new  city,  where 
rewards  and  honours  were  to  be  found?  The  cultivation  of 
the  Greek  in  preference  to  the  Latin  language,  in  a  country 
of  Greeks,  could  not  fail  soon  to  be  adopted,  to  the  obvious 
detriment  of  the  western  learning.  And  when  the  empire 
on  the  death  of  Constantine  was  divided,  Rome,  even  then, 

1  Euseb.  Vita  Constant.  1.1.         J  See  the  Codex  Justinianus,  x.,  xiii. 
3  Tiraboschi,  Storia  dellu  Letteratura,  11.  iv.  1. 


10  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  14 

was  not  the  ordinary  seat  of  her  princes.  Her  loss,  however, 
turned  to  the  advantage  of  other  cities.  When  she  ceased 
to  be  the  universal  centre,  men  of  learning  were  sometimes 
satisfied  with  their  distant  stations,  where,  in  a  sphere  less 
splendid,  they  could  circulate  round  them  the  love,  and  in- 
vite to  the  cultivation,  of  letters. 

The  sons  of  Constantine,  though  two  of  them  had  their 
stations  in  the  west,  were  little  solicitous  to  repair  the  injury 
which  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  empire  had  occasioned; 
and  when,  after  some  years,  Constantine  became  sole  master, 
so  engaged  was  he  with  the  necessary  defence  of  his  widely 
extended  dominions,  or  so  absorbed  in  the  Arian  contro- 
versy which  then  distracted  the  Christian  world,  that  classical 
literature  in  vain  implored  his  fostering  care.  Besides,  at 
this  time,  the  systems  of  Grecian  philosophy  had  gained 
so  many  admirers  among  the  converts  to  Christianity,  and  by 
their  alluring  theories  had  so  far  succeeded  in  perplexing  its 
simple  truths,  that  men  of  the  brightest  abilities  eagerly  en- 
gaged in  the  new  pursuits;  and  that  harmonious  and  manly 
language  which  the  sages,  the  poets,  and  orators  of  Greece 
had  spoken,  was  alienated  to  the  purposes  of  sophistic  dis- 
putation. 

The  line  of  Constantine  was  terminated  by  Julian,  a  prince 
of  some  abilities,  and  who  was  not  indifferent  to  the  interests 
of  literature;  but  his  mind  was  vitiated  by  a  more  than  ordi- 
nary portion  of  levity  and  credulity,  and  hence  he  became  an 
easy  prey  to  the  artifices  of  the  philosophers,  whom  he  pro- 
fessed to  admire,  and  who  were  still  addicted  to  the  heathen 
ritual.  To  their  discourses  he  had  given  peculiar  attention: 
he  had,  besides,  been  trained  in  the  habit  of  composition, 
and,  having  frequented  the  schools  of  Greece,  he  had  learned 
to  write  their  language  with  purity  and  ease.  His  hatred  of 
Christianity  was  extreme ;  and  though  the  means  which  he 
adopted  for  the  promotion  of  learning  were  highly  commend- 
able, yet  his  views  were  so  illiberal  that  he  refused  the  aid  of 
science  to  the  professors  of  the  new  religion,  in  order,  as  far 
as  lay  in  his  power,  to  oppress  them  with  the  reproach  of 
ignorance.  He  forbade  their  public  masters  to  teach;  and  as 
they  believe  not,  he  said,  in  the  gods,  whose  names  are  re- 
peated in  the  very  authors  whom  they  most  love  to  interpret, 
let  them  repair  rather  to  the  assemblies  of  the  Galileans  (as 
he  opprobriously  termed  the  Christians)  and  there  comment 


TO  476.]  VALENTINIAN GRATIAN.  11 

on  the  works  of  Matthew  and  Luke.  His  reign  did  not 
embrace  a  period  of  two  years.1 

Not  many  months  after  the  death  of  Julian,  the  empire  was 
permanently  divided  into  the  two  great  members  of  the  east 
and  west.  To  the  west  I  shall  confine  myself.  Valentinian  I. 
himself  a  poet,  as  is  related,2  an  artist,  and  endowed  with 
eloquence,  passed  several  laws  in  order  to  restore  the  Christian 
teachers  to  their  former  privileges,  and  to  encourage  general 
learning,  even  in  the  distant  provinces.3  His  motives  were 
laudable,  and  his  measures  had  an  obvious  tendency  to  encou- 
rage literary  application;  but  do  not  his  laws,  at  the  same 
time,  prove  how  much  the  general  standard  of  study  had 
declined,  and  how  languid  the  desire  of  mental  improvement 
had  become?  Indeed,  a  contemporary  writer,4  coupling  the 
increasing  ignorance  with  the  licentious  depravity  of  the 
times,  has  described  the  houses  of  Rome,  in  which  the  sciences 
had  once  flourished,  as  resounding  with  musical  instruments, 
the  performers  on  which  had  taken  the  place  of  grave  philo- 
sophers ;  where  jugglers  had  succeeded  to  orators;  and  the 
libraries  were  for  ever  closed,  like  the  monuments  of  the 
dead. 

I  shall  say  nothing  of  Gratian,  whom  Ausonius  has  immo- 
derately praised,5  and  whom,  perhaps,  as  a  grateful  return 
for  his  panegyric,  the  prince  raised  to  the  consulate;  nor  of 
his  brother  Valentinian  II.,  both  of  whom  were  massacred  in 
the  spring  of  life.  It  has  redounded  much  to  the  praise  of 
Gratian,  that  he  invited  the  great  Theodosius  to  the  support 
of  the  falling  empire,  who,  by  that  mean,  was  raised  to  the 
possession  of  the  eastern  throne.  He  afterwards  also  occu- 
pied that  of  the  west.  This  prince,  though  he  was  not  him- 
self profoundly  learned,  could  admire  learning  in  others,  and 
could  devote  his  leisure  hours  to  instructive  reading,  when 
the  toils  of  government  allowed  him  an  interval  of  repose. 
The  simple  manners  of  the  good  and  virtuous  were,  it  has 
been  said,  his  principal  delight;  but  he  failed  not  to  reward 
every  art  and  every  talent  of  an  useful,  or  even  of  a  harmless 
kind,  with  a  judicious  liberality. 

The  fourth  century  closed,  and  the  fifth  opened,  while  the 

1  Sen  Annnianits  Marcellinus,  pass.  Liban.  in  Juliim.  and  on  the  works  of 
Julian,  Fabric.  15ib.  Graecu,  vii.  viii. 

2  Auson.  ()p<>ra,  :!7:{.  3  See  the  Codex  Theod. 
4  Ammiau.  Marcel,  xiv.  fi.  5  See  Auson.  Oper. 

t 


12  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.        [A.D.  14 

purple  was  disgraced  by  the  imbecile  Honorius,  one  of  the 
sons  of  Theodosius.  This  was  a  period  of  accumulated  dis- 
tress to  the  Roman  States.  In  the  preceding  years,  they  had 
often,  with  various  success,  been  invaded  by  the  barbarians 
from  the  north,  first  in  quest  of  plunder,  and  then,  as  they 
felt  the  allurements  of  a  milder  climate,  or  the  pleasures  of  a 
less  savage  life,  in  quest  of  settlements.  Resistance,  though 
sometimes  crowned  by  victory,  was  ultimately  vain;  for  new 
bodies  of  armed  men,  with  their  wives  and  children,  their 
slaves  and  flocks,  kept  constantly  advancing  with  steady  per- 
severance. In  less  than  two  centuries  from  their  first  erup- 
tion, they  extended  their  ravage  and  their  conquest  over 
Thrace,  Pannonia,  Gaul,  Spain,  Africa,  and  finally,  over  Italy. 
Even  Rome,  in  the  tenth  year  of  the  fifth  century,  saw  Alaric 
with  his  Goths  within  her  walls.1 

The  effects  of  these  invasions  on  literature  and  the  arts, 
and  more  than  the  invasions,  the  effects  of  the  permanent 
settlements  in  the  provinces,  will  hereafter  be  detailed.  Let 
me  now  only  add,  that  ten  emperors,  from  the  death  of 
Honorius  in  423,  filled  the  western  throne,  during  whose 
reigns  the  Huns,2  under  Attila,  in  452,  overran  Italy  with 
furious  impetuosity.  Genseric,  with  his  Vandals  from  Africa, 
in  455,  surprised  Rome,  which  he  abandoned  to  pillage  during 
fourteen  days.  New  scenes  of  devastation  were  daily  re- 
peated; and  finally,  when  a  civil  war  between  the  competitors 
for  the  throne  filled  up  the  measure  of  misfortune,  the  bar- 
barians, of  whom  the  provinces  were  full,  and  with  whom  the 
ranks  of  the  army  were  crowded,  demanded,  as  their  stipulated 
property,  one  half  of  the  lands  of  Italy;  and  when  this  was 
refused,  aspired  to  a  higher  price.  Odoacer,  the  chief  of  the 
Heruli,  pursued  his  victorious  career  to  the  walls  of  Rome, 
despoiled  Augustulus,  a  name  of  ominous  import,  of  the 
purple,  proclaimed  himself  king  of  Italy,  and  ascended  the 
vacant  throne.  The  western  empire  closed.  This  was  in  the 
year  476,  at  which  time  Africa  obeyed  the  Vandals;  Spain 
and  part  of  Gaul  were  subject  to  the  Goths;  the  Burgundians 
and  Franks  occupied  the  remainder;  and  many  parts  of 
Britain  were  subject  to  the  domination  of  the  Saxons. 

1  See  Jornaudes,  De  rebus  Geticis.     He  was  himself  a  Gotb,  and  bishop 
of  Ravenna,  in  the  reign  of  Justinian. — See  Book  II. 

2  The  description  of  the   character  and  persons   of  the   Huns,  by  Jor- 
nandes  (xxiv.),is  curious. 

I 


TO  476.]  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  BARBARIANS.  13 

Having  concluded  this  historical  view,  I  feel  an  apprehen- 
sion lest,  in  attempting  to  render  it  concise,  I  have  rendered 
it  useless;  and  yet  it  would  not  have  accorded  with  my  pur- 
pose to  be  more  prolix.  The  connexion  which  it  has  with  the 
principal  subject  is  obvious  to  me,  and  I  think  that  it  will  be 
not  less  apparent  to  the  reader  as  I  proceed.  The  patronage 
of  power  may  often  operate  only  as  a  stimulus  to  adulation, 
but  great  exertions  can  seldom  prosper  without  its  aid;  and, 
therefore,  in  the  long  train  of  princes  who  sometimes  en- 
nobled, and  sometimes  disgraced  the  imperial  throne,  I  was 
willing  to  exhibit  their  characters,  their  tastes,  their  acquire- 
ments, and  their  propensities,  as  they  had  a  relation  to  the 
cause  of  literature.  But  amidst  the  havoc  of  war  and  bloodshed, 
of  infuriated  ambition  and  jealous  rivalry,  what  had  literature 
to  expect?  The  Italian  provinces  were  afterwards  exposed  to 
the  inroads  of  barbarous  hordes,  who  spread  general  devasta- 
tion over  the  fairest  portion  of  the  globe,  and  spared  neither 
the  arts  nor  literature  in  their  rage.  Living  in  the  midst  of 
their  triumphant  invaders,  condemned  to  listen  to  their  rude 
speech,  and  to  form  their  organs  to  its  sounds,  few  had  leisure, 
and  fewer  had  inclination,  to  cultivate  studies  which  those 
barbarians  had  not  taste  to  admire,1  but  which  they  were 
rather  naturally  led  to  despise,  as  they  had  not  taught  those 
by  whom  they  were  cultivated  to  defend  their  altars  and  their 
homes. 

I  have  hitherto  merely  sketched  the  general  outline  of  the 
decline  of  literature  through  this  period  of  nearly  four  hundred 
and  seventy  years,  and  I  shall  now  proceed  to  arrange  it 
under  separate  heads,  that  I  may  show  with  more  distinct- 
ness the  progress  of  its  decay.  We  will  return,  therefore,  to 
the  close  of  the  Augustan  age.  But  I  must  previously  ob- 
serve that,  in  discussing  this  subject,  the  reader  must  not 
expect  a  critical  disquisition,  or  rather  comparison,  of  the 
several  authors  with  their  predecessors.  Such  a  work  would 
be  devoid  of  interest  to  the  generality  of  readers.  It  will, 
however,  be  gratifying  to  me  to  think  that,  in  this  part  of 
my  subject,  I  am  writing  principally  to  those  who  have  been 
delighted  with  the  masterly  productions  of  the  Augustan  age, 

1  Tbe  character  drawn  of  his  countrymen  by  Jornandes  is  far  more  fa- 
vounible,  De  rebus  (icticis,  c.  ~i,  11.  They  were  strangers,  if  we  may  be- 
lieve him,  to  110  science  ! — See  Book  II. 


14     LITERAKY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.     [A.D.  14 

and  who,  in  turning  to  the  pages  of  less  polished  times,  have 
experienced  a  sensible  decrease  of  their  pleasure  and  their 
admiration. 

I  begin  with  the  consideration  of  eloquence,  because  the 
decline  of  that  art  was  first  perceived.  Cicero  himself,  as  the 
reader  will  recollect,  anticipated  that  event.  This  illustrious 
orator  had  carried  his  favourite  pursuit  to  a  pitch  of  excel- 
lence which  was  never  surpassed  in  any  age.  To  force  of  senti- 
ment he  united  majesty  of  diction:  he  exhibited  copiousness 
blended  with  precision;  and  whilst  he  luxuriates  in  richness  of 
phrase,  he  is  not  negligent  of  simplicity.  If  the  votaries  of 
eloquence  had  attempted  to  rival  this  model  of  perfection,  they 
should  not  have  deviated  from  those  principles  of  nature,  or  of 
reason  and  of  taste,  which  he  so  ardently  pursued.  But  they 
would  be  greater  than  Cicero,  and  by  other  means.  They 
complained  that  his  style  was  too  diffuse,  his  periods  not  suf- 
ficiently compressed,  and  that  his  language  had  occasionally 
a  mixture  of  convivial  familiarity.  That  accumulation  of 
defects  therefore  occurred  which  might  have  been  expected. 
Their  copiousness  became  a  feeble  and  tedious  prolixity; 
their  precision  degenerated  into  obscurity;  and  natural  orna- 
ment was  exchanged  for  a  vitiated  glare  of  decoration.  In 
one  word,  the  general  style  of  the  new  orators  was  harsh, 
enigmatical,  quaint,  encumbered  with  unnecessary  words, 
and  with  superfluous  ornament. 

But  how,  it  may  be  asked,  could  that  taste  which  was 
formed  on  the  best  models  of  excellence,  thus  rapidly  degene- 
rate? Without  endeavouring  to  scrutinize  the  various  causes 
of  this  event,  I  will  merely  observe,  that  in  addition  to  the 
injudicious  choice  of  a  new  road  to  excellence,  and  the  insta- 
bility of  all  human  attainments,  Rome  had  not,  at  this  time, 
the  same  incitements  to  the  ambition  of  her  statesmen  and 
the  zeal  of  her  orators.  Since  the  destruction  of  liberty,  in 
proportion  as  the  whole  judicial  power  became  invested  in 
the  will  of  an-  individual,  the  senate  ceased  to  be  the  theatre 
of  a  noble  emulation;  and  the  forum  was  no  longer  the 
favourite  resort  of  the  people.  In  all  countries,  I  believe  that 
the  people  are  the  best  judges  of  genuine  eloquence.  Their 
attention  may  be  seduced  by  tinsel  and  glitter,  and  their  under- 
standings may  be  confounded  by  indefinite  and  mysterious 
terms;  but  when  Mark  Antony,  in  plain  and  simple  language, 
commends  Caesar,  speaks  honourably  of  his  murderers,  and 


TO  476.]  ASINIUS    POLLIO.  15 

shows  his  bloody  garment,  pierced  with  numerous  stabs,  they 
seize  the  arms  which  first  present  themselves,  and  rush  with 
frantic  rage  to  the  houses  of  his  assassins.1  Had  an  appeal 
been  made  to  this  tribunal  —  that  is,  to  the  j  udgment  of 
unsophisticated  nature,  the  false  taste  of  which  I  speak 
would  probably  have  been  corrected,  or  its  progress  re- 
tarded. 

It  was  fostered  by  men  of  talents,  ami  of  high  repute  in 
the  republic  of  letters.  Among  these  the  courtly  Maecenas  has 
been  sometimes  named,  who  was,  perhaps,  a  judge  of  merit, 
and  certainly  its  generous  protector;  but,  from  the  character 
of  his  mind,  which  was  extravagantly  voluptuous,  he  was 
naturally  an  admirer2  of  that  style  in  which  a  masculine 
energy  and  animation  were  not  predominant.3  Ovid  is  also 
here  liable  to  his  share  of  blame.  The  graceful  languor  of  his 
poetry  may  have  communicated  some  portion  of  effeminate 
taste  to  the  other  departments  of  literature.  Those  who  are 
enervated  by  luxury  are  accessible  to  contagion  on  every 
side.  But  Asinius  Pollio  may,  with  most  semblance  of  truth, 
be  accused  of  having  vitiated  the  public  taste,  as  far  as  the 
example,  the  writings,  or  the  admonitions  of  one  man  can 
be  supposed  capable  of  producing  that  effect.  He  lived 
during  the  age  of  Augustus,  was  a  celebrated  orator  and 
historian,  and  is  said  to  have  opened  the  first  public  library  in 
Rome.  But  Pollio  Avas  seized  with  a  jealousy  of  the  fame  of 
others,  and  particularly  of  that  of  Cicero.  Cicero  therefore 
became  the  object  of  his  constant  depreciation;  and  this  he 
could  do  with  little  opposition,  as  the  name  of  the  strenuous 
advocate  of  liberty  could  not  but  be  ungrateful  to  the  ears 
of  the  despot  by  whom  he  had  been  betrayed,  and  liberty 
had  been  extinguished.  It  was  probably  a  consideration  of 
this  kind,  more  than  any  real  want  of  taste,  that  induced  the 
persons  of  whom  I  speak  to  depart  from  the  great  model  of 
eloquence,  and  to  adopt  another  style.  That  of  Pollio  has 
been  described  and  criticised  by  judges  not  far  removed  from 
the  times  in  which  he  lived.  "  In  him,"  observes  Quin- 
tilian,4  "  there  is  invention,  great  accuracy,  by  some  deemed 
too  great;  there  are  design  and  spirit  of  execution:  but  the 
whole  composition  possesses  as  little  of  the  finished  elegance 

1   Plutarch,  in  M.  Brut.          2  Veil.  Paterc.  11.  88. 
3  Suet,  in  Aug.  4  liistit.  x.  1. 


16  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  14 

and  charms  of  Cicero,  as  if  he  had  lived  a  hundred  years 
before  him.  The  opinion  of  others  is  not  more  favourable. 
Even  Seneca  the  philosopher,  though  himself  was  equally 
censurable,  could  animadvert  with  severity  upon  the  style  of 
Asinius  Pollio.  The  jejune,  the  abrupt,  the  affected,  they 
observe,  now  began  to  prevail,  where  copiousness,  grace,  and 
elegance1  had  before  been  seen. 

Quintilian  enters  more  at  large  into  this  subject,  where  he 
describes  the  endless  labour  of  a  modern  orator  intent  on 
composition.2  He  had  premised,  that  elocution,  that  is,  the 
art  of  conveying  to  an  audience,  in  embellished  diction,  the 
various  conceptions  of  the  mind,  was  the  great  work  of  ora- 
tory, and  could  not  be  accomplished,  except  by  unremitting 
assiduity.  But  he  remarks,  how  much  this  important  point 
was  mistaken,  when,  instead  of  adopting  such  words  as  the 
subject  naturally  presented,  extraneous  decorations  were 
sought  with  a  puerile  fondness;  and  the  whole  composition  was 
enervated  by  the  luxury  of  effeminate  ornaments.  What  might 
be  readily  expressed  was  smothered  under  a  mass  of  words; 
and  what  had  been  sufficiently  discussed  was  repeated  till  dis- 
gust was  produced.  Nothing  pleases  that  is  strictly  proper; 
what  another  would  have  said,  must  not  be  admitted;  the 
vocabularies  of  obscure  poets  are  ransacked;  and  it  is  thought 
that  true  genius  has  been  shown  only  when  genius  is  necessary 
to  detect  the  sense.  Cicero,  he  adds,  had  indeed  laid  it  down 
as  a  rule,  that,  in  oratorical  composition,  there  could  not  be 
a  more  vicious  practice  than  to  depart  from  the  common  lan- 
guage and  ordinary  sentiments  of  mankind;  but  what  little 
judgment  and  discrimination,  he  says  ironically,  did  Cicero 
possess,  and  how  much  more  exquisite  is  our  taste,  who  are 
too  fastidious  not  to  loathe  whatever  is  agreeable  to  nature 
and  to  truth! 

Of  the  orations  of  Asinius  Pollio,  and  of  many  others  in 
the  same  line  of  eloquence,  nothing  is  come  down  to  us;  nor 
have  we  any  reason  to  lament  their  loss.  "We  know  what  their 
character  was.  But  we  have  some  writings  of  his  contempo- 
rary, Seneca,  the  rhetorician,  the  father  of  the  philosopher; 
the  declamations  ascribed  to  Quintilian;  and  the  celebrated 


1  See  this  subject  fully  discussed  by  Tiraboschi,  1.  251 — 280,  to  whose 
labours  I  have  ofteii  obligations,  when  I  do  not  express  them. 

2  Procem.  viii. 


TO  476.]  SENECA    THE    RHETORICIAN.  17 

panegyric  of  Pliny  the  younger  addressed  to  Trajan.  If  the 
declamations  ascribed  to  Quintilian  could  be  proved  to  have 
come  from  his  pen,  it  would  be  clear  that,  when  he  composed 
them,  he  had  overlooked  every  precept  which  he  had  incul- 
cated in  his  Oratorical  Institutions.  They  can  be  esteemed  as 
no  better  than  exercises  on  imaginary  topics,  which  were  pro- 
posed in  the  schools,  by  which  it  was  thought  that  the  art  of 
public  speaking  might  be  acquired;  and  the  style  in  Avhich 
they  are  written,  is  a  striking  exemplication  of  the  false  taste 
which  has  been  described.1  The  same  opinion  must  be  enter- 
tained of  the  orations,  or  rather  declamations,  of  Seneca,  which 
were  formed  on  a  similar  plan.  Indeed,  in  the  ears  of  an  ele- 
gant scholar,  the  name  of  Seneca  is  almost  synonymous  with 
affectation  and  lad  taste.  The  family  was  from  Spain.  Here, 
if  it  would  not  occupy  too  much  space,  I  could  with  pleasure 
copy  a  passage2  from  Quintilian,  on  the  moral  virtues  and 
classical  vices  of  Seneca  the  philosopher.  Part  of  the  passage 
I  have  mentioned  would  apply  to  the  father,  where  he  shows 
how  just  his  own  taste  was,  and  how  just  also  was  the  judg- 
ment which  he  had  formed  of  that  uncommon  man.  Quinti- 
lian in  this  place  discovers  an  anxiety  to  put  young  men  on 
their  guard  against  a  writer  whose  very  defects  pleased,  and 
whose  style  was  the  more  dangerous,  as  it  abounded  dulcibus 
vitiis.  In  the  concluding  sentence,  it  appears  to  me  that  he 
himself  exhibits  an  example  of  that  studied  prettiness  of 
thought  and  expression  which  he  had  so  severely  condemned 
but  just  before.  Digna  enim  fait  ilia  natura,  (that  of  Seneca), 
(jnce  mtiiora  relief,  qua;  quod  roluit,  eff'ecit. 

Of  Quintilian,  I  must  not  omit  to  say,  that  whatever  coun- 
try gave  him  birth,  whether  Italy  or  Spain,3  he  resided  in 
Rome,  where  he  gave  lectures  in  eloquence,  and  received  a 
salary  from  the  treasury.  In  the  reign  of  Domitian  he  after- 
wards wrote  his  Institutions,  a  work  which,  notwithstanding 
some  prolixity  in  the  manner,  and  some  blemishes  of  style, 
it  is  never  Iwjen  surpassed  in  justness  of  precept,  nicety  of 
discernment,  and  depth  of  critical  erudition.  The  want  of 
Ciceronian  purity  with  which  he  is  justly  charged,  would  of 
itself,  if  any  further  argument  were  necessary,  incontcstably 
prove  that  decline  of  taste  which  we  deplore,  particularly  whim 

1  The  reader  may  find  tlicni  iiilixn!  to  soini- coj.ii's  of  the  "Institutions." 
arc  in  that  of  London,  an.  1041. — Sne  Fulncii  Bibliothccu  Lutiiiii,  1. 
L.  x.  c.  1.  s  Tin.ljos.«l<!,  11.  jv>:j. 

C 


18  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.   14 

he,  who  took  so  much  pains  to  guard  others  from  its  seductions, 
could  not  himself  escape  the  lure. 

The  panegyric  of  Pliny,  which  is  admired  by  the  young, 
but  read  with  little  pleasure  by  those  whose  taste  is  more 
refined,  and  whose  judgment  more  matured,  may  be  esteemed 
a  monument  of  the  highest  excellence  which  could  be  accom- 
plished by  the  talents  of  the  age.  In  his  private  correspond- 
ence1 Pliny  often  bewails  the  decline  of  letters,  expresses  his 
admiration  of  better  days,  and  proposes  Cicero  as  the  model 
of  imitation.  Yet,  at  what  a  distance  does  he  follow  his 
master  !  A  modern  critic2  speaks  ^thus  of  Pliny  and  his 
panegyric.  "  It  cannot  be  denied,"  says  La  Harpe,  "  that  he 
possesses  extraordinary  brilliancy;  but  he  is  too  ambitious  of 
shining,  and  he  does  nothing  but  shine.  He  shows  a  marked 
solicitude  to  give  point  to  all  his  thoughts,  and  make  them 
strike  by  an  epigrammatic  turn.  This  constancy  of  toil,  this 
profusion  of  glitter,  this  monotony,  as  it  were,  of  genius, 
soon  generate  fatigue.  I  would  wish  to  read  him  as  I  would 
Seneca,  by  fragments.  And  where,  we  naturally  ask,  is  that 
noble  and  elevated  tone,  which  we  admired  in  Cicero;  that 
easy  and  engaging  copiousness;  that  connexion  and  flow  of 
ideas;  that  tissue  in  which  all  is  well  combined,  and  nothing 
confused;  that  energy  of  expression,  and  that  harmony  of 
period,  those  vivid  illustrations  and  glaring  figures,  which 
give  beauty  and  animation  to  every  part?  Instead  of  these 
we  have  a  cluster  of  gems,  a  perpetual  sparkling,  which  for 
a  moment  excites  pleasure,  or  even  admiration,  but  which  at 
last  dazzles  by  its  brilliancy,  and  wearies  by  its  glare,  till  the 
feeh'ng  of  satiety  is  produced.  Then  where  was  the  patience 
of  Trajan,  when  this  discourse  was  pronounced  before  him? — 
The  praise  which  it  contains  of  his  virtues  might,  indeed,  as 
we  can  readily  conceive,  cause  the  emperor  to  feel  less  of  that 
languor  which  a  more  indifferent  reader  is  apt  to  feel.  But 
the  truth  is,  that  the  panegyric  was  not  addressed  to  Trajan 
in  the  prolix  form  which  it  afterward  received." 

C.  Plinius  Secundus,  whose  talents  were  equalled  only  by 
his  virtues,  exhibited  in  early  life  that  assemblage  of  high 
qualities  which  laid  the  foundation  of  his  future  greatness. 
He  was  an  object  of  admiration  in  the  court  even  of  Domi- 
tian;  but  the  death  of  the  tyrant,  probably,  saved  his  life. 

1  See  Ms  Epistles.  -  Cours  de  Litterature,  par  La  Harpe,  iii.  228. 


TO  476.]  PLINY.  19 

Under  Nerva,  and  his  successor  Trajan,  lie  was  promoted  to 
offices  of  great  dignity  and  trust.  His  epistles,  which  must 
be  ever  read  with  pleasure,  show  us  who  were  the  friends 
whom  he  honoured  most;  what  was  the  spirit  and  the  cha- 
racter of  the  times  in  which  he  lived;  and  what  the  vices  owing 
to  the  pernicious  agency  of  which  the  empire  was  hastening 
to  decay.  The  ease  and  elegance  of  these  epistles  have  caused 
some  persons  to  prefer  them  to  those  of  Cicero;  but  the  in- 
stances of  false  taste  by  which  they  are  vitiated  are  too 
striking  even  for  their  excellence  to  conceal. 

In  Pliny,  then,  who  was  the  most  elegant  scholar  of  the 
age,  we  have  the  " honeyed  defects"  the  dulcia  vitia,  which 
rendered  the  style  of  Seneca  mischievously  seductive;  and 
what  was  there  left  which  could  arrest  the  progressive  depra- 
vation of  the  public  taste?  The  names  of  some  orators  are 
recorded  after  the  time  of  Adrian;  but  their  works  have 
perished.  Indeed,  from  the  circumstances  of  the  times,  the 
art  of  oratory  gradually  ceasing  to  be  either  honourable  or 
lucrative,  it  was  at  last  totally  relinquished  by  men  of  emi- 
nence. It  thus  fell  into  the  inferior  hands  of  the  rhetoricians, 
sometimes  called  grammarians,  of  whom  the  historians  speak 
with  praise:  but  were  the  historians  competent  to  judge? 
The  style  of  their  own  works  is  the  best  clue  to  their  com- 
petency.1 

Much  is  said  at  this  period  of  the  eloquence  of  the  Grecian 
sophists,  who  had  long  found  admirers  in  Rome;  but  when 
we  know  that  their  chief  excellence  consisted  in  a  ready 
utterance,  and  a  presumptuous  effrontery  in  haranguing  with 
extemporaneous  carelessness  on  whatever  subject  might  be 
proposed,  the  cause  of  pure  oratory  had,  it  must  be  confessed, 
little  to  gain  from  their  exertions.2 

The  reader  must  now  excuse  me,  if  I  briefly  despatch  the 
remaining  period  of  Latin  eloquence.  Public  schools  of  the 
art  were  still  maintained;  and  there  were  orators  of  whom 
the  times  spoke  in  accents  of  the  highest  praise,  comparing 
them  with,  or  preferring  them  to  Cicero,  or  the  best  models 
of  antiquity.  Amongst  the  orators  of  whom  we  are  speaking, 
the  first  place  was  occupied  by  Aurelius  Symmachus,  towards 
the  close  of  the  fourth  century.  He  was  a  man  of  talents, 

1  See  Hist.  August.  Script.  Ann.  Marcel.  Sidon.  Apoll. 

2  See  Storia  della  Letter.  Ital.  11.  305 — 317. 

c2 


20  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  14 

•which  the  ablest  masters  of  the  age  had  laboured  to  cultivate; 
and  he  filled  the  highest  offices  in  the  state.  The  contem- 
poraries of  Symmachus  are  never  tired  of  loading  him  with 
encomiums.  Ten  books  of  his  Letters  are  still  preserved; 
and  among  them  his  address,  on  a  solemn  occasion,  to  the 
emperor  Theodosius.  As  a  sample  of  his  eloquence,  and  of 
that  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  this  address  may  be  read. 
Erasmus  observes,  that  they  may  admire  Symmachus,  whom 
long,  rather  than  good  speaking  can  delight.1 

Were  the  ties  by  which  all  the  branches  of  knowledge  are 
united,  and  the  general  principles  of  taste,  clearly  discerned, 
we  should  not  require  facts  to  prove  that  the  declension  of 
eloquence  was  accompanied  with  that  of  the  sister  arts. 

The  age,  indeed,  of  genuine  poetry  survived  that  of  elo- 
quence, as  Virgil,  Tibullus,  Horace,  and  Ovid,  who  formed 
the  most  brilliant  aera  of  Roman  poetry,  had  many  years  to 
live,  when  the  loss  of  liberty  had  paralyzed  the  efforts  of  the 
orator,  and  extinguished  the  fire  of  his  eloquence.  But  when 
death  had  consigned  the  poets  of  the  Augustan  age  to  the 
grave,  causes  connected  with  the  state  of  the  times  contributed 
to  prevent  the  expansion  of  poetic  genius  in  their  successors. 
The  illustrious  Germanicus»  indeed,  had  evinced  a  taste  for 
poetry;  but  the  distractions  of  a  military  life  contributed  to 
divert  his  thoughts  from  literary  pursuits. 

This  period  was  distinguished  by  four  epic  poets,  Lucan, 
Valerius  Flaccus,  Statius,  and  Silius  Italicus,  on  whose  merits 
various  judgments  have  been  pronounced.  Many  years  are 
now  passed  since  I  read  them;  and  I  believe  that,  with  the 
exception  of  Lucan,  they  are  read  by  few,  except  professed 
critics  or  antiquaries.  This  may  form  a  sufficient  criterion  of 
their  works. 

Lucan  died  when  in  his  twenty-seventh  year,  and  in  the 
reign  of  Nero.  He  had  imprudently  contended  with  the 
tyrant  himself  for  the  poetic  crown,  and  more  imprudently 
engaged  in  a  conspiracy  against  his  life.  The  immature  age 
of  the  poet  readily  accounts  for  the  imperfections  of  his 
work;  and  he  might  have  approached  nearer  the  excellence 
of  Virgil  had  he  not  aspired  to  eclipse  his  fame.  By  Quinti- 
lian  he  is  described  to  be  "  ardent  and  impetuous,  great  in  his 

1  Erasmus  in  Ciceronian. — See  on  this  period  Tiraboschi,  ii.  423 — 44-2; 
on  Symmachus,  Fabric.  Bib,  Lat.  t.  ii. 


TO  476.]  LUCAN.  21 

sentiments,  but  more  fit  to  be  ranked  amongst  orators  than 
poets."1  The  praise  is  feeble.  The  ardour,  however,  and 
impetuosity  of  his  mind  communicate  so  much  energy  to  his 
expressions,  and  so  much  grandeur  to  his  images,  that  he 
sometimes  rises  to  the  sublime.  But  he  knows  not  where  to 
stop;  and  his  judgment  is  not  sufficiently  strong  to  control 
the  extravagance  of  his  imagination.  His  glare  of  colouring 
fatigues;  and  the  natural  interest  of  his  subject  is  weakened 
or  destroyed  by  the  prolixity  of  his  details. 

Impelled  by  the  fire  of  youth,  observes  the  Italian  critic,2 
Lucan  sits  down  to  compose  an  epic  poem  which  shall  leave 
the  JEneis  behind  it.  But  how  can  this  be  effected?  I  seem 
to  see  a  young  and  inexperienced  sculptor,  before  whose  eyes 
stands  a  Grecian  statue  of  exquisite  workmanship.  He  will 
form  another  that  in  beauty  shall  surpass  it.  But  in  the 
model  there  is  a  proportion  of  parts,  a  force  of  expression,  a 
grace  of  attitude,  which  no  art  can  exceed.  What  then 
must  be  done?  He  has  recourse  to  the  forced  and  the  gigan- 
tic; and  behold  a  colossus  comes  forth,  of  which  the  members 
are  vast,  but  void  of  that  proportion  from  which  beauty 
springs;  of  which  the  attitude  has  energy,  but  an  energy  out 
of  nature;  and  if  the  expression  has  force,  it  is  a  force  which 
indicates  violence  and  distortion.  The  rude  or  unlettered 
spectator,  whose  admiration  is  increased  by  the  physical 
magnitude  of  an  object,  views  the  form  with  wonder,  whilst 
the  man  of  taste  turns  away  from  it  with  disgust.  Such  is 
the  Pharsalia  when  compared  with  the  JEneis.  In  Virgil, 
the  characters,  the  descriptions,  the  speeches,  the  narrations, 
are  dictated  by  nature;  and  Nature  herself  is  portrayed  with 
the  force,  the  delicacy,  the  elegance,  which  are  her  essential 
attributes.  But  in  Lucan  all  is  inflated,  is  deformed,  is  gi- 
gantic; his  speeches  are  declamatory,  and  his  descriptions  are 
grotesque. 

If  such  be  the  Pharsalia,  which  is  confessedly  the  best 
production  after  the  days  of  Virgil,  can  we  expect  more  per- 
fection in  the  succeeding  poets?  .And  let  me  observe  that,  as 
the  defects,  which  have  been  noticed  in  Lucan,  were  of  the 
same  character  as  those  which  disfigured  the  oratory  of  the 
same  period,  it  is  plain  their  source  was  the  same. 

1  Jnstit.  1.  x.  c.  J. 

'J  Tinilioschi,  ii.  7v>. — See  also  the  Polymetis  of  Spence,  Dial,  iv.,  and 
Fabric.  Bib.  Lat.  i. 


22  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.        [A.D.  14 

From  Valerius  Flaccus,  whose  recent  death,  in  the  reign  of 
Domitian,  Quintilian  laments,1  we  have  a  poem  on  the  expe- 
dition of  the  Argonauts.  The  impression  of  disgust  which 
seizes  the  mind,  when,  from  the  beautiful  scenery  of  a  highly 
cultivated  country,  we  enter  on  a  desert,  sterile,  uninhabited, 
and  forlorn,  may,  it  has  been  said,2  aptly  represent  what  is 
felt,  when  from  the  jEneis  of  Virgil  we  pass  to  the  Argo- 
nautics  of  Flaccus.  His  flight  is  always  near  the  ground; 
and  he  must  be  satisfied  to  rank  with  those  who  will  make 
love  to  the  muses  in  despite  of  natural  impediments.  His 
language  is  too  studied;  his  style  unequal,  and  sometimes 
obscure. 

On  the  works  of  Statius,  of  which  the  principal  is  the 
Thebaid,  or  the  conquest  of  Thebes,  a  more  favourable  judg- 
ment is  pronounced.  It  is  allowed  that  he  possessed  the 
talents  of  a  poet;  but  that  the  taste  of  the  age  vitiated  their 
application.  He  was  an  admirer  of  Virgil,  but  he  flattered 
himself  that  he  might  equal  his  greatness  by  tumid  affecta- 
tion. Hence  he  labours  to  be  gigantic  in  his  pace;  and  his 
conceptions  are  monstrous  when  he  thinks  that  they  are  sub- 
lime. Juvenal,  however,  tells  us,3  that  the  Thebaid  was  the 
favourite  study  of  the  Roman  people;  so  much  was  their  at- 
tention excited  by  its  charms.  Need  we  furnish  a  more 
striking  proof  of  the  declining  taste  of  Rome?  And  another 
proof  the  same  Statius  can  supply;  for,  after  he  had  furnished 
so  much  delight  to  the  people,  and  filled  the  theatre  with 
applause,  the  satirist  adds,  that  he  wanted  bread.  He  lived 
under  Domitian. 

Fortune  was  more  favourable  to  Silitis  Italicus.  He  had 
been  consul  in  the  last  year  of  Nero,  a  proconsul  in  Asia,  and 

1  Instit.  1.  x.  c.  1. 

2  Tiraboschi,  ii.  74.     Other  critics  are  less  severe ;  see  Spence  ut  ante. 

3  "  Curritur  ad  vocem  jucundam,  et  carmen  amicae 
Thebaidos,  Isetam  fecit  cum  Statius  urbem, 
Promisitque  diem ;  tanta  dulcedine  captos 
Afficit  ille  animos,  tautaque  libidine  vulgi 
Auditur."  Sat.  vii.  82,  &c. 

"  When  Statius  fixed  a  morning  to  recite 
His  Thebaid  to  the  town,  with  what  delight 
They  flock'd  to  hear,  with  what  fond  rapture  hung 
On  the  sweet  strains  made  sweeter  by  his  tongue  1" 

The  poet,  some  think,  spoke  ironically.     See  Spence. 


TO  476.]          SILIUS  ITALICUS — JUVENAL PERSIUS.  23 

among  the  lands  which  he  possessed,  as  well  as  houses  stored 
with  books,  and  statues,  and  pictures,  he  particularly  delighted 
in  a  villa,  which  once  belonged  to  Cicero,  and  in  another 
near  Naples,  which  contained  the  tomb  of  Virgil.1  But 
nature  had  denied  him  that  to  which  he  most  aspired,  the 
inspiration  of  a  poet.  The  poem  by  which  he  is  known  as  an 
author,  is  an  account  of  the  second  Punic  War,  in  seventeen 
books,  which  some  have  called  a  gazette  in  verse.  It  is  des- 
titute of  fancy  or  invention,  and  the  narrative  flows  or  stag- 
nates in  a  languid  stream,  which  lulls  to  sleep  rather  than 
awakens  interest.  He  has  not  a  single  quality  which  kindles 
emotion  or  produces  delight.  He  is  uniformly  tedious  and 
insipid.  Silius  patronized  the  arts,  passed  whole  days  in  the 
society  of  the  learned,  and  often  visited  the  tomb  of  the 
Mantuan  bard,  but  without  catching  one  particle  of  his 
inspiration.  He  was  denominated  the  ape  of  Virgil.  He 
saw  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Trajan.'2 

To  the  reader  of  classical  discernment  I  shall  leave  the 
obscure  Persius,  and  the  indignant  Juvenal,  whose  satires  he 
will  compare  with  the  terse  and  polished  productions  of 
Horace,  in  the  same  line  of  composition.  The  first  wrote  in 
the  reign  of  Nero,  the  second  in  that  of  Trajan;3  and  if,  as  I 
cannot  doubt,  their  inferiority  to  the  Augustan  model  shall 
be  perceived,  it  may  well  be  imputed  to  their  vain  attempt  to 
surpass  what  was  perfect.  But  Juvenal,  nevertheless,  on 
many  accounts,  merits  our  admiration;  his  moral  reflections 
are  as  forcible  as  they  are  true;  and  he  has  sentiments,  the 
energy  of  which  has  never  been  surpassed. 

These,  if  we  except  the  epigrams  of  Martial,  are  the  prin- 
cipal productions  of  the  period  which  we  have  reviewed.  Of 
many  others  the  historians  speak;  and  if  merit  could  be  in- 
ferred from  numbers,  surely  no  age  was  ever  more  rich  in 
poetic  genius.  There  is  a  passage  in  one  of  the  epistles  of 
Pliny4  which  shows,  that  the  Romans,  in  his  time,  had  begun 
to  lose  their  taste  for  public  reading.  "  This  year,"  he  says, 
"  has  proved  extremely  fertile  in  poetical  productions  :  during 
the  whole  month  of  April,  scarcely  a  day  has  passed  in  which 
we  have  not  been  entertained  with  the  recital  of  some  poem. 
It  is  a  pleasure  to  me  to  find,  notwithstanding  there  seems  to 

1   Plin.  1.  iii.  p.  vii.     The  letter  may  be  read  with  pleasure. 
-  See  Fabric.  Bib.  Lat.  1.  '   P  '  L.  1.  c.  xiii. 


24  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.   14 

be  so  little  disposition  in  the  public  to  attend  assemblies  of 
this  kind,  that  letters  still  flourish,  and  that  men  of  genius  are 
not  discouraged  from  exhibiting  their  performances.  It  is 
visible  that  the  greater  part  of  the  audience  which  is  col- 
lected on  these  occasions  conies  with  reluctance  :  they  loiter 
round  the  place  of  assembly,  join  in  little  parties  of  conversa- 
tion, and  send  every  now  and  then  to  inquire  whether  the 
author  is  come  in,  whether  he  has  read  the  preface,  or  whether 
he  has  almost  finished  the  piece?  Then,  with  an  air  of  the 
greatest  indifference,  they  just  look  in,  and  withdraw  again; 
some  by  stealth,  and  others  with  less  ceremony.  It  was  not 
thus  in  the  time  of  our  ancestors." 

Nothing  will  detain  us  in  the  succeeding  period,  when  even 
the  number  of  poets  had  decreased,  and  the  compositions  of 
the  few  which  have  come  down  to  us  are  said  (for  I  have 
not  read  them)  to  deserve  little  attention.  But,  after  the 
accession  of  Constantine,  when  less  might  be  expected,  we 
open,  not  without  admiration,  the  miscellaneous  works  of 
Claudian.1  He  was  born  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  and  re- 
sided at  Rome  during  that  inauspicious  period  when  Hono- 
rius  held  the  sceptre,  and  the  cries  of  the  barbarians,  which 
menaced  ruin  to  Italy,  might  well  disperse  the  visions  or 
chill  the  transports  of  a  poetical  mind.  Such  were  the  un- 
propitious  circumstances  in  which  he  wrote.  I  know  with 
what  severity  he  is  sometimes  criticised.  The  harmony  of 
his  lines,  observes  La  Harpe,2  resembles  the  tinkling  of  a  bell, 
which  never  varies.  And  the  Italian  writer,3  allowing  that 
he  may  rank  with  the  best  poets  after  the  Augustan  age,  says, 
his  genius  was  lively  and  his  fancy  fervid;  but  seldom  does 
he  keep  within  the  limits  which  reason  prescribes  to  those 
faculties.  Like  Lucan  and  Statius,  he  is  impetuously  hurried 
on.  To  judge  from  his  first  rising,  the  clouds  must  be  too 
confined  for  his  flight :  but  his  wings  soon  tire,  till  he  falls 
and  creeps  upon  the  earth. 

The  defects  of  Claudian  are  those  of  a  declining  taste.  But 
if  it  is  considered  that  when  he  wrote  the  Latin  language 
itself  had  lost  its  purity,  that,  though  a  resident  in  Italy,  he 
was  the  native  of  a  distant  country,  and  that  he  had  no  living 
examples  of  a  better  taste  before  his  eyes,  he  seems  entitled 

1  See  Bib.  L.it.  ii.  2  Cours.  de  Litter,  i.  27.!. 

3  Scoria  della  Letter,  ii.  447. 


TO  476.]  DECLINE    OF    HISTORY.  25 

to  no  common  share  of  praise.  In  the  compositions  of 
Claudian,  whatever  may  be  his  imperfections,  the  Latin  muse 
was  entombed  with  honour;  and  our  tears  may  now  be  shed 
upon  her  urn. 

The  reader  who  may  wish  for  a  longer  list  will  turn  to 
the  characters,  which  are  easily  found,  of  Petronius  Arbiter,1 
of  Seneca  the  philosopher  and  poet,  of  Apulius,  of  Olympius 
Nemesianus,  of  Junius  Calpurnius,  and  of  Decimus  Auso- 
nius,  who  lived  at  different  periods  of  the  same  aera,  and 
whose  works,  no  less  than  those  which  I  have  cited,  would 
serve  to  trace  the  declining  progress  of  the  art. 

I  would  ask  the  reader,  if  he  ever  beheld  an  edifice  of 
admirable  workmanship  verging  to  decay,  its  roof  opening  to 
the  rain,  its  columns  shaken,  its  walls  inclining,  and  the  ivy 
forcing  its  way  through  the  fissures — what  were  the  emotions 
of  his  mind?  Would  they  be  very  different  from  those 
which  he  now  feel?,  when,  passing  rapidly  from  object  to 
object,  he  discovers  a  decline  in  all,  and  which  is  more 
deplorable,  inasmuch  as  the  works  of  intellect  may  be  deemed 
more  precious  than  the  works  of  art,  and  their  decay  is  more 
extensively  fatal  to  the  best  interests  of  man?  When  we 
trace  the  progress  of  society,  from  barbarism  to  civilization, 
from  ignorance  to  knowledge,  from  rudeness  to  the  arts  of 
refinement,  all  is  gay  and  cheering;  and  we  are  delighted 
by  each  feature  of  the  scene.  It  is  with  a  pleasure  of  this 
kind  that  we  contemplate  the  progress  of  history  from  its 
first  rude  beginning  till,  proceeding  through  a  series  of 
writers,  it  attained  that  fulness  of  exceUence  which  dis- 
tinguished the  historian  of  the  Roman  people.2 

In  treating  the  decline  of  History,  the  Italian  critic3  thus 
feelingly  opens  the  subject:  "  So  calamitous  and  afflicting 
were  the  times  on  which  we  enter,  that  it  were  rather  to 
have  been  wished  no  remembrance  of  them  had  descended  to 
posterity.  But  as  the  unhappy  man  finds  comfort  in  reveal- 
ing his  sorrows,  so,  it  seems,  many  Romans,  having  expe- 
rienced the  weight  of  distress,  were  anxious  that  it  should  not 
be  unknown  to  their  children's  children."  The  history  of 
the  first  Caesars  was  the  subject  on  which  many  wrote: 

['  See,  amoug  other  authorities,  the  dissertation  of  M.  de  Guerle  oil  Pe- 
trouius.] 

4  Titus  Livius.  •  Tiraboschi,  ii.  109. 


26  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.        [A.D.  14 

others,  from  a  higher  date,  traced  the  story  of  the  Roman 
people;  and  others  selected  different  themes.  The  number 
of  these  writers  had  not  been  exceeded  in  any  age ;  but  I  fear 
we  must  be  prepared,  among  many  beauties,  to  notice  in  them 
faults  similar  to  those  which  deformed  the  compositions  of 
the  orators  and  the  poets.  Their  compositions  discover  a 
sententious  stateliness,  an  affected  precision,  a  superfluity  of 
ornament,  an  involution  of  phrase,  and  an  obscurity  of  dic- 
tion, which  will  often  baffle  the  most  penetrating  sagacity. 
Cicero  has  said,  that  "  history  amuses,  in  whatever  manner 
it  be  written."  And  so  it  does,  provided  it  be  such  history 
as,  we  may  presume,  that  he  himself  had  read,  in  which  the 
narration  presents  a  simple  but  luminous  statement  of  facts; 
and  where  the  reflections  of  the  writer,  arising  out  of  the 
subject,  are  neither  unnecessarily  nor  affectedly  introduced. 

With  the  names,  the  writings,  and  the  character  of  the 
writings  of  those  authors,  who,  in  the  historical  department, 
served  to  enliven  this  declining  period,  every  scholar  is  well 
acquainted.  He  knows  that  Velleius  Paterculus,  in  the  reign 
of  Tiberius,  wrote  a  history,  chiefly  of  his  own  times,  in 
which  he  basely  flatters  the  tyrant  and  his  infamous  minister, 
Sejanus;  and  that  the  style  of  that  history,  though  often 
glittering  with  ornament,  had  lost  the  simple  elegance  which 
he  had  been  taught  to  admire.  He  knows,  that  contemporary 
with  Paterculus  was  Valerius  Maximus,  who  compiled  a 
work,  in  nine  books,  in  which  he  describes  many  of  the 
sayings  and  actions  of  memorable  men.  Of  this  work  (not 
to  mention  the  want  of  perspicacity  in  the  selection  of  its 
materials)  every  page  announces  the  corruption  of  the  Latin 
idiom.1  Suetonius,  the  friend  of  the  younger  Pliny,  besides 
some  works  of  less  note,  has  left  us  the  Lives  of  the  twelve 
Csesars,  a  compilation,  as  it  has  been  called,  of  secret  anec- 
dotes, which,  if  it  instruct  by  the  veracity,  will  disgust  by 
the  impurity  of  its  details.  It  is  not  characterized  by  an 
affected  brevity  so  much  as  by  a  want  of  energy.2  An  abridg- 
ment of  the  Roman  history,  from  the  foundation  of  the  city 
to  the  reign  of  Augustus,  was  written  by  Annseus  Florus,  in 
the  time  of  Trajan,  which  is  marked  by  the  common  defects 
of  the  age.3 

Of  some  other  writers  on  historical  subjects,  the  names  are 

1  See  Bib.  Lat.  i.  2  Ibid.  3  Ibid. 


TO  476.]  TACITUS.  27 

recorded,  but  the  works  are  lost.  Quintilian  remarks,  that 
in  history  the  Latin  had  shown  themselves  not  inferior  to 
the  Grecian  writers;  and  he  expatiates,  in  the  warmest  strain 
of  panegyric,  on  the  merits  of  Sallust  and  of  Titus  Livius, 
comparing  the  one  with  Thucydides  and  the  other  with 
Herodotus:  but  as  he  approaches  his  own  times,  he  mentions, 
besides  Aufidius  Bassus,  only  Servilius  Novianus,  a  man  of 
resplendent  talents,  but  whose  style  was  less  compressed  than 
the  dignity  of  history  required.1  As  we  have  not  the  works 
of  Novianus,  it  is  not  possible  to  decide  what  that  compres- 
sion was,  the  want  of  which  he  censures;  but  it  is  probable, 
that  the  critic  had  himself  learned  to  admire  the  sententious 
brevity  which,  forsaking  the  copious  perspicuity  of  better 
days,  had  become  the  general  taste. 

Have  I  then  forgotten  Cornelius  Tacitus,  it  will  be  asked  : 
or  do  I  mean  to  pass  him  over  in  silence?  He  has  by  no 
means  escaped  my  recollection;  nor  shall  I  leave  him  unno- 
ticed: but  I  thought,  that  if  I  selected  him  as  a  model  of  the 
historical  taste  of  the  age,  its  beauties  and  its  blemishes 
would  become  more  palpable  and  manifest. 

Tacitus  was  the  favourite  of  many  emperors,  or,  at  least, 
they  promoted  him  to  the  highest  offices  in  the  state.  The 
younger  Pliny  was  amongst  his  friends;  and  that  elegant 
writer  addressed  several  of  his  epistles  to  Tacitus.  From 
the  station  which  Tacitus  occupied,  he  had  means  of  access 
to  accurate  information,  and  his  talents  enabled  him  to  select 
and  record  such  events,  characters,  views  of  human  nature, 
and  motives  of  action,  as  offered  themselves  to  his  observa- 
tion during  the  disastrous  period  of  which  he  wrote.  His 
works,  mutilated  and  imperfect  as  we  possess  them,  are  com- 
prised under  Annals,  from  the  death  of  Augustus  to  that  of 
Nero:  a  History,  beginning  with  the  reign  of  Galba  and 
ending  with  that  of  Domitian,  a  treatise  on  the  Manners  of 
the  Germans,  and  the  Life  of  Agricola.  Of  the  Annals  and 
History  many  entire  books  are  lost.2 

No  author  has  more  frequently  engaged  the  comments  and 
expositions  of  the  learned;  and  none  has  been  more  frequently 
translated.  His  admirers,  with  an  enthusiasm  seldom  equalled, 
have  fancied  that,  without  a  single  blemish,  they  discovered 
in  him  all  the  qualities  which  are  required  in  a  perfect 

1  Instil.  1.  x.  c.  1.  2  See  Bib.  Lat.  i. 


28  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.        [A.D.  14 

historian.  "  He  is  accused,"  observes  a  sagacious  critic,1 
"  of  having  painted  human  nature  in  colours  of  too  dark  a 
tinge,  that  is,  of  having  viewed  her  with  too  searching  an 
eye.  He  is  said  to  be  obscure,  which  means,  I  believe,  that 
he  did  not  write  for  the  multitude:  and  his  style  is  by  some 
deemed  to  be  too  rapid  and  too  concise,  as  if  to  say  much 
in  few  words  were  not  the  first  quality  of  a  writer."  Another 
critic  of  the  same  nation,2  whose  judgment  I  often  admire, 
hesitates  not  to  declare,  that  the  diction  of  Tacitus  has  the 
energy  of  his  soul;  that  it  is  singularly  picturesque  without 
being  too  figurative,  precise  without  obscurity,  and  nervous 
without  inflation.  He  speaks,  at  the  same  time,  to  the  affections, 
to  the  fancy,  and  to  the  understanding.  Of  the  capacity  of  the 
reader,  he  observes,  we  may  fairly  judge  by  the  opinion  which 
he  forms  of  Tacitus:  for  no  one,  who  is  not  himself  profound, 
can  fathom  the  depth  of  his  reflections.  But  the  secret  magic 
of  his  style  arose  from  the  circumstances  of  his  life,  as  well  as 
from  the  singular  powers  of  his  genius.  Pie  then  adds,  this 
virtuous  man,  whose  eyes  first  opened  on  the  horrors  of  the 
court  of  Nero;  who  then  beheld  the  ignominy  of  Galba;  the 
gluttony  of  Vitellius;  and  the  rapine  of  Otho;  was  compelled, 
in  a  mature  age,  after  he  had  breathed  the  milder  air  of  the 
reigns  of  Vespasian  and  Titus,  again  to  endure,  and  to  endure 
in  silence,  the  hypocritical  and  jealous  tyranny  of  Domitian. 
His  situation,  as  well  as  the  hopes  of  his  family,  demanded 
that  he  should  not  irritate  the  tyrant,  but  suppress  his  indig- 
nation, and  weep  in  secret  over  the  wounds  of  his  country, 
and  the  blood  of  his  fellow-citizens.  In  these  circumstances, 
Tacitus,  absorbed  in  his  own  reflections,  developed  in  his  his- 
torical compositions  the  feelings  of  indignation  which  pressed 
for  utterance;  and  this  it  is  which  has  given  to  his  style  its 
interest  and  animation.  His  invective  is  not  that  of  a  de- 
claimer,  as  he  was  too  deeply  affected  to  be  declamatory; 
but  he  depicts  in  the  full  colours  of  life  and  truth  whatever 
is  odious  in  tyranny,  or  revolting  in  slavery;  the  hopes  of  the 
criminal,  the  fears  of  the  innocent,  and  the  dejection  of  the 
virtuous. 

This  eulogy  is  not  void  of  truth;  but  the  praise  must  be 
received  with  some  abatement.     I  have  read  Tacitus,  and  I 

1  D'Alembert,  Melanges  de  Litterat.,  who  translated  select  passages  of  his 
admired  author. 

*  La  Harpe,  Cours  de  Litterat.  iii.  310. 


TO  476.]  TACITUS.  29 

never  read  him  without  delight:  but  this  delight  is  diminished 
by  his  occasional  obscurity,  which  the  sagacity  of  commenta- 
tors has  not  hitherto  been  able  to  dispel.  But  is  this  the 
manner  in  which  history  ought  to  be  written?  Whilst  we  are 
desirous  of  acquiring  the  knowledge  of  facts,  and  of  discrimi- 
nating the  characters,  the  views  and  motives  of  the  principal 
actors,  can  it  be  expedient  that  our  progress  should  be  sus- 
pended by  diction  which  is  enveloped  in  the  shades  of  mystery, 
or  by  a  sort  of  enigmatical  brevity,  of  which  the  meaning  is  a 
matter  of  conjecture  rather  than  of  certainty?  I  do  not  here 
speak  of  such  passages  as  time  and  ignorance  have  mutilated 
or  corrupted,  but  of  the  text,  when  acknowledged  to  be  ge- 
nuine and  entire.  Of  a  Grecian  painter,  it  was  observe*], 
inteUigitur  plus  semper  quam  pitigitur,  "  his  meaning  is  much 
fuller  than  his  expression:"  in  an  art  which  is  confined  within 
local  dimensions  of  such  limited  extent,  the  praise  might 
be  just.  But  there  are  no  bounds  to  the  field  of  history; 
and  though  all  need  not  be  said,  yet  nothing  should  be 
omitted,  which  can  serve  to  illustrate  character,  to  develop 
motives,  or  to  give  a  clear  insight  into  the  causes  and  suc- 
cession of  events.  The  reader  will  recollect  a  passage  in 
Quintilian,  in  which,  describing  the  vicious  taste  of  the  age, 
he  says,  that  it  was  thought  by  some,  "  true  genius  was  then 
only  shown,  when  genius  was  necessary  to  investigate  the 
sense.  '  It  was  in  this  age  that  Tacitus  wrote;  and  \ve  need 
not  hesitate  to  affirm,  that  he  affected  brevity  and  refine- 
ment in  order  to  exhibit  his  acuteness;  or,  in  other  words, 
that  Cornelius  Tacitus,  with  all  his  excellences,  was  some- 
times not  superior  to  his  contemporaries;  and  that  the  style 
of  his  history  exhibits  undoubted  proofs  of  the  decline  of 
taste. 

The  following  character  by  a  German  author,  now  living.1 
is,  I  think  just: — "Tacitus,"  he  says,  "seems  to  have  made 
Sallu^t  his  model,  though,  in  his  manner  of  treating  history, 
and  in  his  general  composition,  he  be  himself  original.  He 
paints  as  a  poet  rather  than  as  an  historian,  whilst  he  is  more 
an  orator  than  a  poet;  more  a  moralist,  than  an  orator;  and 
more  than  all,  a  statesman.  Of  a  statesman  he  everywhere 
assumes  the  reflections  and  the  language.  He  surprises,  and 

1  Mcusel-  Ltitf.iden  zur  Geschichte  der  Gelebrsamkeit.   Zweit  Abtheil. 

p.  4.1!). 


30  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  14 

even  astonishes;  but  addressing  the  imagination,  and  not  the 
heart,  he  seldom  moves.  His  ideas,  besides,  by  a  forced 
brevity  of  expression,  are  so  pressed  together,  as  to  be  in- 
volved in  great  obscurity;  and  the  translator,  to  make  a 
single  line  intelligible,  is  compelled  to  become  a  paraphrast." 

Other  objections  have  been  made.  It  has  been  said,  that, 
in  all  events,  he  professed  to  discover  views  which  probably 
were  not  entertained,  and  designs  which  did  not  exist;  that 
he  seemed  to  imagine  that  the  ordinary  course  of  nature  and 
unpremeditated  occurrences  had  no  influence  in  human  affairs; 
that  his  representations  of  character  are  depicted  with  too 
much  elaborate  artifice;  and  that  the  originals  had  no  exist- 
ence except  in  the  imagination  of  the  historian.  On  these 
objections,  which  are  not  unfounded,  I  shall  not  dwell;  but  I 
will  beg  leave  to  add,  that  he  occasionally  neglected  those 
sources  of  accurate  information  which  were  easily  accessible, 
and  had  recourse  to  fable  or  surmise.  I  here  allude  chiefly 
to  his  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Jewish  nation  and  of  its 
rites,1  than  which  nothing  can  be  'less  authentic,  whilst  the 
sacred  books  of  the  Jews  were  at  that  time  everywhere  open 
to  inspection,  and  individuals  of  that  nation  were  to  be 
found  in  every  city  of  the  empire.  But  he  despised  that 
people,  and  was  anxious  to  render  their  origin  an  object  of 
contempt. 

I  will  finally  observe,  that  the  insurmountable  difficulties 
which  the  translators  of  Tacitus  have  universally  experienced,2 
may  be  considered  as  a  proof,  that  his  originality,  in  what- 
ever it  consisted,  was  the  offspring  rather  of  affected  refine- 
ment than  of  powerful  genius  or  profound  thought.  The 
French  critic,  whom  I  quoted,  would  reply,  that  this  judg- 
ment was  dictated  by  shallowness  of  intellect,  and  that  no 
one  should  pronounce  on  the  merits  of  Tacitus  who  is  not 
animated  by  the  spirit  which  pervades  his  compositions.  Be- 
fore I  quit  this  subject  I  will,  however,  declare,  that  what- 
ever intricacies  or  obscurities  may  perplex  the  reader  of 
Tacitus,  he  will  find  the  labour  more  than  compensated  by 
the  beauties  with  which  his  works  abound. 

1  Hist.  1.  v. 

2  I  may  mention,  among  the  innumerable  translations,  the  late  one,  iu 
our  language,  by  Mr.  Murphy,  which,  certainly  as  an  interesting  .narration, 
may  be  read  with  pleasure ;  but  it  is  not  Tacitus.     The  Italian  Davanzati 
has  attempted  more ;  but  he,  it  is  said,  -is  not  intelligible. 


TO  476.]  THE    HISTORIA    AUGUSTA.  31 

It  is  not  agreed  among  the  learned  who  Quintus  Curtius 
was,  or  at  what  time  he  lived.  His  History,  in  ten  books,  of 
the  exploits  of  Alexander,  though  replete  with  many  beauties, 
does  not,  in  the  opinion  of  sober  critics,  entitle  him  to  a  place 
of  high  antiquity;  and,  perhaps,  of  this  opinion  no  more  con- 
vincing proof  could  be  given,  than  that,  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  a  Spanish  king  should  have  been  so  delighted  with 
its  perusal  as  to  have  ascribed  to  it  the  recovery  of  his 
health.  The  genuine  beauties  of  historical  composition  were 
not  likely  to  have  so  powerfully  allured  the  attention  of  a 
barbarous  prince.1  It  has  been  thought  rather  a  romance 
than  a  genuine  history. 

If  we  except  Justin,  'though  it  be  not  accurately  known 
when  he  flourished,  and  whose  abridgment  of  general  history 
is  not  greatly  admired,2  we  have  now  a  dreary  chasm  to 
pass  till  we  come  to  the  reign  of  Diocletian.  At  this  period, 
or  not  long  afterwards,  we  meet  the  authors  of  the  Historia. 
A  iff/if  sf  a,  which  is  a  valuable  collection,  as  it  gives  us  the  lives 
of  the  preceding  emperors,  of  whom  we  should  otherwise 
have  had  no  account.  But  the  narrations  of  these  writers  is 
sometimes  confused  and  inaccurate,  and  it  is  vain  to  expect 
purity  of  diction,  or  elegance  of  style.  The  authors  of  the 
Hixtoria  Augusta  are  generally  supposed  to  be  six,  if  there  be 
not  some  mistake  in  the  names,  JElius  Spartianus,  Julius 
Capitolinus,  .ZElius  Lampridius,  Vulcatius  Gallicanus,  Tre- 
bellius  Pollio,  and  Flavins  Vopiscus.3 

After  Constantine,  and  during  the  reigns  of  his  successors, 
we  seek  in  vain  for  an  historian  to  show  us,  who  were  the 
people,  often  conquerors,  and  sometimes  conquered,  that,  from 
all  sides,  precipitated  themselves  upon  the  empire;  whence 
they  came,  and  what  were  their  laws,  manners,  and  customs; 
what  were  the  real  characters  of  the  emperors  and  their 
ministers,  or  of  such  individuals  as  served  to  augment  or  to 
mitigate  the  evils  of  the  period.4  No  such  historian  is  found. 
Aurelius  Victor,  indeed,  who  lived  about  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century,  has  written  the  Lives  of  the  emperors,  from 
Augustus  to  Constantius;  and  his  contemporary  Eutropius 
has  furnished  an  epitome  of  Roman  history,  from  its  origin  to 

i   S.M-  Bib.  Lat.  i.         Storia  dellu  Letter,  ii.  144—154. 
»  Bib.  Lat.  ii. 

1  Ibid.  [There  is  a  French  translation  of  the  Scriptores  Hist.  Augusta, 
by  Molines.]  4  Storia  della  Letterat.  ii.  450. 


32  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.        [A.D.     14 

a  somewhat  later  era:1  but  Ammianus  Marcellinus  becomes 
the  principal  object  of  our  attention. 

Ammianus  Marcellinus  was  by  birth  a  Greek,  and  from  the 
city  of  Antioch;  but  he  resided  many  years  in  Rome,  where 
he  was  greatly  admired,  and  where  he  wrote  his  History  in 
the  Latin  language.  It  commenced  with  the  reign  of  Nerva, 
and  ended  with  that  of  Valens  in  the  year  378.  It  originally 
consisted  of  thirty-one  books,  of  which  thirteen  have  perished. 
It  is  generally  agreed,  that  solid  truth  and  accurate  discern- 
ment are  to  be  found  in  Ammianus;  but  his  style  is  rugged 
and  inharmonious.  This  may  be  pardoned  in  a  Greek  and  a 
soldier;  but  his  useless  digressions,  which  are  evidently 
designed  to  display  his  learning,  weary  and  disgust.  The 
declamatory  manner,  also,  in  which  he  relates  the  most  or- 
dinary incidents,  is  contrary  to  that  sober  dignity  which  history 
should  maintain;  but  it  is  known  that  he  composed  his  work 
for  public  recitation,  and  that  his  readings  were  attended 
and  applauded.2  The  applause  at  once  proves,  if  any  proof 
were  wanting,  that  the  orator  and  his  audience  were  equally 
void  of  taste.  His  knowledge  of  geography  merits  commen- 
dation. 

But  I  must  not  omit  Paulus  Orosius,  a  Spaniard,  and  the 
author  of  a  History  in  seven  book^,  written  with  a  view  to 
repel  the  charge  of  the  Gentiles,  that  the  calamities  which 
the  empire  at  that  time  endured  arose  from  the  establishment 
of  Christianity.  He  shows  that  wars,  insurrections,  and 
feuds,  had  at  all  times  caused  the  miseries  of  the  human  race. 
Orosius  lived  early  in  the  fifth  century,  and  was  known 
to  St.  Jerom  and  the  African  bishop  St.  Augustin,  at  whose 
recommendation  he  wrote  his  History.  His  work  contains 
some  useful  information,  but  it  is  deformed  by  his  chrono- 
logical negligence,  and  his  puerile  credulity.  This  was, 
perhaps,  what  gave  it  a  peculiar  relish  amongst  the  scholars, 
if  I  may  so  call  them,  of  the  Middle  Ages,  when  the  History 
of  Orosius  was  very  generally  read,  and  made  the  model  of 
their  chronicles. 

If  the  studies  best  adapted,  by  their  influence  on  the  affec- 
tions of  the  mind,  to  command  attention,  could  not  resist  the 
causes  of  decline,  it  will  be  idle  to  look  for  stability  in  graver 

1  Bib.  Lat.  ii. 

2  Hadrian,  Vales.  Pref.  ad  Amm.  Marcel.  Bib.  Lat.  ii. 


TO  476.]  PLINY'S  NATURAL  HISTORY.  33 

and  less  attractive  pursuits.  Among  the  Romans,  observes 
an  author  whom  I  have  before  quoted,1  philosophy  had  few 
admirers,  and  these  few  were  contented  to  imitate  their  Greek 
masters,  amuse  themselves  with  sophisms  and  flowery  decla- 
mations, subversive  at  once  of  taste,  and  unproductive  of  any 
moral  benefit.  Some  of  them  wrote  in  Greek;  but  their  lan- 
guage was  often  so  ill-adapted  to  common  apprehension,  and 
the  maxims  of  their  pretended  wisdom  so  unattainable,  that 
they  seemed  to  aspire  to  nothing  beyond  the  merit  of  singu- 
larity. While  the  severer  lessons  of  the  Stoic  school  had 
some  followers,  those  of  Epicurus  had  more;  and  the  follies 
of  magic,  of  astrology,  and  of  demonology,  were  by  no  means 
destitute  of  votaries. 

Rising  from  the  perusal  of  the  works  of  Cicero,  whose  taste 
and  eloquence  could  diffuse  a  charm  over  the  severest  sub- 
jects, we  are  ill  prepared  to  relish  the  pages  of  Seneca,  whose 
moral  maxims,  indeed,  are  often  admirable,  and  whose  know- 
ledge was  vast,  but  whose  inflated  idiom  and  unnatural  con- 
ceits served  principally  to  vitiate  the  writers  of  the  age.  He 
was  the  preceptor  of  Nero,  and  died  by  his  command.2 

The  Natural  History  of  Pliny  is  still  read  with  pleasure. 
It  is  an  immense  compilation,  extracted  from  more  than  two- 
thousand  authors,  Greek  and  Latin,  and  containing  all  the 
knowledge  of  nature  and  of  human  inventions  which  was 
possessed  in  his  time.  The  style  is  often  highly  decorated; 
but  it  is  wanting  in  the  purity  and  simplicity  of  better  days. 
His  nephew  has  left  us  an  interesting  account  of  his  studies, 
and  of  the  manner  of  his  death,  in  the  year  79,  during  the 
tremendous  eruption  of  Vesuvius,  which  laid  an  extensive 
country  in  ruins,  and  overwhelmed  many  populous  cities.3 

Of  other  philosophers  we  know  little  more  than  the  praises 
which  they  received  from  the  historians,  and  the  persecutions 
which  they  underwent  from  the  emperors,  who  were  some- 
times jealous  of  their  virtues,  but  more  often  of  the  insight 
into  futurity  which  they  were  supposed  to  possess.  Hence 
they  were  confounded  with  the  astrologers,  who  were  then  so 
numerous  and  so  celebrated.  The  philosophy  which  was 
principally  adopted  was  that  of  the  Stoic  school.  It  was  pre- 

1  Menscls  Leitfaden,  p.  470. 

-  Tacit.  Annal.  1.  xv.  c.  60,  &c.     See  Bib.  Lat.  i. 

3  Epist.  1.  iii.  ep.  5. 1.  0.  ep.  1G,  20.     See  Bib.  Lut.  i. 

D 


34       LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   f A.D.  14 

ferred  for  the  severity  of  its  maxims;  and  every  pretender  to 
wisdom  deemed  it  necessary  to  bear  the  evils  of  life  with 
firmness,  or  to  liberate  himself  from  their  pressure  by  a  volun- 
tary death.  That  many  so  suffered  and  so  died,  we  know 
from  the  most  authentic  statements.1 

But  neither  this  weighty  consideration,  nor  the  contagious 
pages  of  Seneca,  nor,  what  was  more  alluring,  the  examples 
and  encouragement  of  the  philosophic  emperors,  who,  during 
many  years  of  the  second  century,  filled  the  throne,  could 
attract  many  to  drink  at  the  fountain  of  science  or  philo- 
sophy. The  Greeks,  indeed,  in  Rome  itself,  and  more  in 
their  favourite  cities  of  learning,  seemed  anxious  to  bring 
back  the  days  of  Pythagoras  and  of  Plato.  But  among  the 
Latins  there  was  nothing  but  a  sort  of  intellectual  languor  or 
decrepitude. 

What  has  once  become  extinct  cannot  easily  be  revived; 
and  when  Constantine,2  agreeably  to  the  principles  of  the 
soundest  policy,  granted  liberty  to  the  professors  of  the  new 
religion,  its  maxims  induced  many  to  contemn  the  pursuits  of 
what  they  deemed  a  vain  science,  whilst  others  found  ample 
exercise  for  their  talents,  in  the  defence  of  their  faith  against 
the  attacks  of  those  powerful  adversaries  whom  the  schools  of 
Greece  principally  supplied  to  wage  the  war  of  words. 

But  whatever  were  the  causes  of  the  decline  of  the  study 
of  philosophy,  it  is  certain  that  the  names  of  but  few  of  its 
votaries  have  been  transmitted  to  us,  and  much  fewer  are 
their  writings,  from  the  reign  of  Adrian  to  the  fall  of  the 
western  empire.3 

The  subject  of  jurisprudence  is  but  remotely  connected  with 
that  of  literature;  or  it  would  otherwise  be  easy  to  show  how 
inevitable  was  its  decline,  when  the  lives  and  properties  of 
the  citizen  depended  no  longer  on  the  law  or  its  most  able 
expositions;  but  on  the  arbitrary  will  of  an  individual.  Nor 
shall  I  dwell  much  on  the  grammarians,  as  they  were  deno- 
minated, or  the  philologists,  or  the  professors  of  rhetoric,  as 

1  See  Tacitus,  Suetonius,  and  other  historians. 

*  Constantine  offered  rewards  to  those  who  should  save  the  lives  of  pri- 
soners taken  in  war.  See,  on  the  present  subject,  Anecdotes  Chrcf  ionics, 
Lyons,  1812 ;  and  Verite  de  la  Religion  Chretienne,  by  Martin.  Paris, 
ISlti. 

3  On  this  subject  may  be  read  with  great  profit  the  profound  work  of  the 
German  Brucker,  Historia  Critica  Philosophise,  ii.  1,  2. 


TO  476.]  PHILOLOGISTS LIBRARIES.  35 

the  latter,  however  numerous,  must  have  followed  the  decline 
of  eloquence,  which  they  contributed  to  accelerate.  Privi- 
leges, honours,  and  stipends  were  not  wanting;  but  the  prin- 
ciple of  taste  was  extinct.1  Perhaps  Aulus  Gellius  should  be 
excepted  from  the  herd.  He  was  the  author  of  the  Noctes 
Atticee,  in  twenty  books;  and  is  by  some  thought  to  have 
lived  in  the  reign  of  Adrian;  though  others  assign  his  exist- 
ence to  a  later  period.  The  critics,  as  usual,  are  divided  on 
the  merits  of  this  work;  but  however  defective  its  style  may 
be,  or  trifling  the  points  on  which  it  sometimes  dwells,  it 
contains  much  information  relative  to  the  history,  chronology, 
the  manners,  and  the  laws  of  ancient  times,  which  we  should 
elsewhere  seek  in  vain.2 

Among  the  early  philologists  were  reckoned  Asconius  Peda- 
nus,  of  whom  some  fragments  remain;  Fannius  Palaemon, 
who  wrote  an  abridgment  of  grammar,  and  Valerius  Probus, 
who  revised  the  text  of  Virgil  and  of  Terence.  These  were 
succeeded  by  Censorinus,  the  celebrated  JElius  Donatus,  by 
Nonius  Marcellus  and  Mallius  Theodorus,  names  not  un- 
known to  the  lovers  of  accurate  diction  in  the  Latin  tongue. 
The  labours  of  such  men  became  gradually  more  and  more 
requisite,  in  proportion  as  the  Greek  language  acquired  a 
general  preference  and  a  variety  of  other  causes  tended  to 
debase  the  former  purity  of  the  Latin  tongue. 

From  literature  in  its  various  branches,  the  decline  of 
which  we  have  thus  rapidly  traced,  our  attention  is  naturally 
directed  to  the  Libraries.  Where  these  are  numerous  and 
well-selected,  the  means,  at  least,  of  acquiring  knowledge  will 
not  be  wanting;  but  these  means  and  their  application  must 
still  be  usually  coincident.  The  ancient  Romans,  almost 
solely  intent  on  military  conquest,  had  long  neglected,  as 
beneath  their  notice,  the  pursuits  of  literature;  and  it  was  not 
before  the  year  of  Rome,  667,  when  Athens  was  taken  by 
Cornelius  Sylla,  that  a  library  was  formed  from  the  spoils  of 
that  seat  of  the  Muses.3  But  had  the  Muses  really  excited 
the  admiration  of  the  proud  conqueror,  or  was  it  not  rather 
ostentation  which  incited  Sylla  to  collect  a  treasure  which,  in 
any  other  view,  had  little  value  in  his  eyes?  We  next  read 

1  See  all  these  subjects  treated  with  his  usual  sagacity  by  TirnboM  l,i. 
Storm  della  Letterat.  ii. 

*  See  Bib.  Lut.  ii.  *  Idem  in  Vita  Lucul.  and  Corn.  Nepos. 


36  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.   H 

of  the  library  of  the  munificent  Lucullus;  and  of  that  of  Atti- 
cus,  the  friend  of  Cicero,1  to  which  must  be  added  that  of 
Cicero  himself,  and  of  his  brother  Quintus.  These  were  pri- 
vate collections,  composed  of  Greek  and  Latin  authors,  but 
they  were  open  to  the  inspection  of  the  studious.  Julius 
Caesar,  who  was  distinguished  by  his  literary  attainments  as 
much  as  his  military  talents,  is  related,2  amongst  his  various 
plans  for  the  benefit  of  Rome  and  of  the  Roman  world,  to 
have  cherished  the  design  of  erecting  public  libraries. 

What  Caesar  designed,  but  his  death  prevented,  a  private 
citizen  first  achieved.  This  citizen  was  Asinus  Pollio,  to 
whom  the  corruption  of  eloquence  has  been  ascribed;  but  who 
was  himself  learned,  and  the  protector  of  learning.  Actuated 
by  a  noble  ambition,  he  devoted  the  spoils  of  war  to  the  pur- 
poses of  science,  and  built  a  spacious  hall  adjoining  to  the 
Temple  of  Liberty,  Avhich  he  stored  with  Greek  and  Latin 
books.3 

The  example  was  followed  by  Augustus,  who  formed  two 
libraries,  one  on  the  Palatine  hill,  near  the  temple  of  Apollo, 
which  he  had  himself  raised;  and  the  other  in  the  portico  of 
the  palace  of  his  sister  Octavia.4 

But  these  edifices,  and  one  for  the  same  purpose,  erected 
by  Tiberius,  together  with  their  invaluable  contents,  were 
afterwards  destroyed  by  the  two  fires  which,  under  Nero  and 
Titus,  threatened  to  lay  the  eternal  city  itself  in  ruins.5 
"When  the  copies  of  works,  which  were  all  written  by  the 
hand,  were  few,  and  those  confined  chiefly  within  the  walls 
of  Rome  (I  except  the  productions  of  Greece),  it  is  not  pos- 
sible to  calculate  the  extent  of  the  loss.  The  tyrant  Domitian, 
however,  seriously  attempted  to  repair  it  by  collecting  other 
copies,  and  employing  transcribers  whom  he  sent  to  Alexan- 
dria, at  that  time  celebrated  for  its  numerous  scholars  and  its 
literary  stores.6 

The  private  libraries,  in  the  meantime,  were  multiplied 
among  the  pretenders  to  literature;7  and  as  luxury  increased, 
books  were  purchased  as  an  appendage  of  wealth,  or  as  an 
embellishment,  which  was  supposed  to  show  the  taste  of  their 
possessor.  The  austere  Seneca  does  not  spare  his  censure 

1  Plutarch,  in  Vita  Sylloe.  2  Suet,  in  Jul.  Caesar,  c.  44. 

3  Plin.  Sen.  1.  xxxv.  c.  11.  4  Suet,  et  Plutarch,  in  August. 

*  Suet,  in  Ner.  et  Tit.  •  Id.  in  Domit.  c.  20. 

*  See  the  Epistles  of  Pliny. 


TO  476.]  STATE    OF    THE    FINE    ARTS.  37 

against  this  vain  parade;1  but  he  might  have  known  that  it 
merited  some  praise,  as  it  circulated  copies,  and  increased  the 
facilities  of  acquiring  information. 

Another  fire  under  Commodus2  destroyed  the  magnificent 
Temple  of  Peace,  and  with  it  the  annexed  library.  From 
this  period  the  paucity  of  historians  occasions  the  dearth  of 
intelligence,  or  the  confusion  that  ensued.  The  general 
depravation  of  manners  suspended  all  attention  to  literary 
objects,  and  induced  indifference  to  their  fate;  and  we  read 
little  more  of  libraries,  either  public  or  private.  The  inroads 
of  barbarous  armies  accomplished  what  remained.  At  their 
approach  science  fled;  devastation  and  pillage  destroyed  or 
dissipated  what  few,  compared  with  life  and  the  means  of 
subsistence,  could  be  solicitous  to  preserve. 

This  reflection  naturally  impels  our  attention  to  the  state 
of  the  liberal  arts,3  which  must  have  felt  the  operation  of 
those  causes  which  ultimately  proved  so  fatal  to  letters. 

At  an  early  period,  when  in  Etruria,  in  Magna  Grascia, 
and  in  Sicily,  the  arts  had  been  advanced  to  a  high  degree  of 
perfection,  Rome  was  intent  on  other  objects;  and  the  taste 
which  she  afterwards  seemed  to  have  acquired  was  easily 
satisfied.  Foreign  artists  were  ready  to  exhibit  specimens  of 
their  skill;  and  a  series  of  conquests,  which  laid  city  after 
city,  and  nation  after  nation,  at  her  feet,  soon  opened  to  the 
rapacity  of  her  generals  all  the  monuments  of  the  arts,  which 
had  served  to  embellish  the  temples  of  their  gods  and  the 
palaces  of  their  princes.  The  number  of  statues,  and  of  other 
costly  and  admired  works,  which  from  all  quarters  were  im- 
ported into  Italy,  exceeds  belief.  The  view  of  them  might, 
and  in  some  did,  excite  the  desire  of  imitation;  but  it  would 
doubtless  cause  in  more  a  wish  to  add  to  their  stores  by 
further  spoliation.  Why  have  recourse  to  the  slow  labour  of 
the  chisel,  when  neither  curiosity  nor  luxury  had  a  wish 
which  the  sword  could  not  more  readily  gratify? 

As  Greece  had  been  the  principal  school  of  the  arts,  and 
the  repository  of  their  productions,  the  Roman  robbers,  when 
they  had  acquired  a  taste  for  the  productions  of  sculpture  or 
painting,  looked  to  Greece  for  the  accomplishment  of  their 

1   Seiieo.  <le  Tranquil,  c.  ix.  2  Herodian,  1.  1.  c.  44. 

3  I  shall  follow  in  tins  concise  review  of  the  oils  the  Statements  of 
Winckelmanu,  in  the  Italian  edition  of  his  Storia  delle  arti  del  Diseguo,  t.  ii. 
Aluj  Syence,  in  his  Polymetis. 


38  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.          [A.D.  14 

desires.  That  envied  country  was  everywhere  stripped  of  its 
most  estimable  ornaments.  In  the  hundred  and  fifty-sixth 
Olympiad,  and  about  the  six  hundred  and  seventh  year  of 
Home,  we  may  follow  Lucius  Mummius  to  Corinth,  when 
that  city  was  destroyed;  but  its  most  precious  treasure  of 
statues  and  pictures  was  preserved.  These  he  resolved  to 
transmit  to  Rome;  but  the  orders  which  he  issued  on  the 
occasion  are  not  a  little  curious.  "  If  any  of  these  spoils,"  he 
observed  to  those  who  had  the  care  of  them,  "  be  lost  or  injured, 
you  shall  repair  or  replace  them  at  your  own  expense.1" 
Mummius  entered  Rome  in  triumph;  when  the  citizens,  for 
the  first  time,  beheld  with  astonishment  the  specimens  of 
Grecian  taste.2 

"When  luxury,  more  destructive  than  steel,  had  revenged  on 
Rome  herself  the  cause  of  general  liberty,3  that  is,  when  the 
Caesars  began  to  reign,  did  the  arts,  under  their  protection, 
arrive  at  superior  excellence?  If  we  believe  Virgil,  they  were 
still  in  other  hands;  the  Greeks  were  still  unrivalled  in  the 
arts.  The  Romans  had  higher  calls.  It  was  well,  however,  in 
one  sense,  for  their  city,  and  for  other  parts  of  the  empire,  that 
aqueducts,  porticoes,  palaces,  theatres,  and  temples  were  not 
so  portable,  as  the  smaller  productions  of  the  statuary  and  the 
painter.  By  contemplating  the  beautiful  models  of  Greece, 
the  Romans  imbibed  that  taste  which  they  exerted  in  the 
erection  of  edifices  commensurate  with  the  greatness  of  the 
Roman  name.  But  even  architecture  soon  declined  with  the 
other  arts,  and  similar  causes  accelerated  its  fall. 

Under  the  immediate  successors  of  Augustus,  occasional 
patronage  inspired  life  into  the  arts;  and  it  is  not  without 
some  astonishment  that  we  view  the  extravagance  which  Nero 
displayed  in  their  cause.  His  taste,  which  he  probably  ac- 
quired from  his  master,  Seneca,  may  well  be  impeached  when 
it  led  him  to  command  the  bronze  statue  of  Alexander,  by 
Lisippus,  to  be  washed  with  gold,  or  when  he  directed  a 

1  Veil.  Paterc.  1.  i.  c.  13. 

*  This  is  not  true.     Long  before  this,  by  the  taking  of  Syracuse,  and 
again  by  the  conquest  of  Macedon,  Rome  had  been  enriched  by  the  choicest 
spoils.     See  Livy  passim. — Winckelmann  Storia  delle  Arti,  ii. 
3  savior  armis 

Luxuria  incubuit,  victumque  ulciscitur  orbem. — 

Juvenal.  Satyr,  vi. 

"  Luxury,  more  terrible  than  hostile  powers, 
Her  baneful  influence  wide  around  has  huri'd, 
And  well  avenged  the  subjugated  world." 


TO  476.]  DECAY    OF    THE    FINE    ARTS.  39 

colossal  statue  of  himself,  a  hundred  and  ten  feet  high,  to  be 
cast  by  Zenodorus;  but  Rome  was  indebted  to  him  for  a  fresh 
importation  from  Greece.  Under  a  specious  pretence  of  re- 
storing liberty,  his  delegates  were  admitted  into  the  Grecian 
cities,  which  they  robbed  of  what  pleased  them  best;  and, 
from  the  single  temple  of  Delphi,  which  already  had  been 
ten  times  spoiled,  they  conveyed  into  Italy  five  hundred 
statues.  Among  these  are  thought  to  have  been  the  Apollo 
of  Belvidere  and  the  supposed  Gladiator.1 

While  Rome  continued  to  be  ornamented  with  these  new 
spoils,  other  works  of  great  magnificence  were  added,  parti- 
cularly by  Trajan,  whose  reign  infused  fresh  vigour  into 
every  pursuit;  and  the  Romans  appear  to  have  acquired  skill 
in  the  execution,  if  not  in  the  design  of  these  works.  But, 
when  Adrian,  the  friend  of  Greece,  and  the  patron  of  the 
arts,  was  no  more,  we  have  to  lament  their  visible  decline. 
Many  artists  were  formed  in  his  school,  and  their  talents 
were  still  employed  under  the  Antonines.  But  the  natural 
bent  of  these  emperors  was  to  other  pursuits.  Their  attention 
was  more  particularly  engaged  by  the  sophists;  who  could  see 
nothing  that  was  excellent  in  the  forms  of  matter,  compared 
with  the  objects  of  intellectual  abstraction  and  metaphysical 
subtlety.  The  encouragement  which  the  Antonines  gave  to 
the  arts  was,  as  Winckelmann  remarks,  only  that  apparent 
reviviscence  which  is  the  precursor  of  death.  Under  the 
brutal  Commodus,  the  arts,  which  the  school  of  Adrian  had 
nourished,  sunk,  like  a  river  which  is  lost  in  the  earth,  to  be 
seen  no  more,  but  at  a  distance  too  remote  for  observation. 

The  Italian  writers  acknowledge2  the  decay,  but  not  the 
extinction  of  the  arts;  and  they  produce  instances  of  works, 
the  remains  of  which  are  contemplated  with  admiration. 
This,  in  the  department  of  architecture,  often  cannot  be 
reasonably  denied. 

You  have  told  us,  may  the  reader  say,  what,  during  the 
lapse  of  many  years,  was  the  state  of  literature  and  of  the 
arts  in  Rome:  but  what  was  it  in  the  other  cities  of  Italy; 
and  in  the  remoter  provinces?  But  perhaps  when  the  state 
of  the  arts  in  such  a  capital  as  Rome  confessedly  was,  has 
been  sufficiently  delineated,  no  additional  details  can  be  re- 

1  In  speaking  of  the  Apollo,  the  mind  of  Winckelmann  seems  to 
feel  the  enthusiasm  that  animated  its  artist. — ii.  285,  of  the  Italian 
edition. 

*  See  Tiraboschi,  ii.  480. 


40  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.   14 

quisite.  Rome  was  the  central  resort,  from  all  parts  of  the 
empire,  of  all  who  were  anxious  to  improve  their  fortune  or 
gratify  their  ambition.  In  the  language  of  Seneca,  Rome 
was  the  Patria  of  the  Avorld.  Perceiving  the  list  of  those, 
many  of  whom  I  have  mentioned,  who  by  their  works  or  their 
talents  illustrated  the  west,  we  find  an  ample  supply  from 
Gaul,  from  Spain,  from  Africa;  while  the  cities  of  Greece 
and  of  Asia  Minor  vied  with  each  other  in  literary  pursuits. 

As  long  as  Rome  continued  to  be  the  seat  of  empire,  the 
means  of  acquii-ing  knowledge,  and  the  incitements  to  the 
attainment  were,  in  a  great  measure,  confined  within  her 
walls.  The  migration  to  Byzantium,  among  all  its  evils,  was, 
therefore,  productive  of  some  good;  as,  from  this  period, 
Rome  ceased  to  be  the  constant  residence  of  the  western 
emperors,  and  the  temptation  to  resort  to  that  city  no  longer 
retained  its  former  force. 

That  the  cities  of  Magna  Graecia  and  of  Sicily,  now  the 
kingdom  of  Naples,  retained  their  love  of  .-letters,  in  which, 
during  so  long,  and  from  so  early  a  period,  they  had  acquired 
fame,  is  not  disputed.1  And,  from  the  remains  of  theatres, 
and  other  monuments  of  art,  the  Italians  willingly  infer,  that 
their  ancestors,  in  almost  every  city,  possessed  some  portion 
of  elegant  taste.  They  dwell  with  pleasure  on  the  patriotism 
of  the  younger  Pliny,  who  nobly  contributed  to  establish  a 
public  school  in  his  native  city  of  Como,  and  to  open  a 
library,  on  which  occasion  he  delivered  an  oration  before  the 
magistrates.2  Before  this  time,  Milan  had  been  celebrated 
for  its  schools,  to  which,  we  are  told,  that  many  repaired 
from  the  neighbouring  countries.3  But  in  such  researches 
there  is  much  uncertainty;  for  though  modern  Italy  can 
number  an  historian  almost  for  every  city,  antiquity  has  left 
few  to  whose  sentiments  we  can  recur. 

In  the  remoter  provinces  of  the]  empire,  where  Roman 
colonies  were  established,  and  the  legions  were  often  stationed, 
no  encouragement  to  liberal  pursuits  was  withheld;  and  we 
still  admire  the  vestiges  of  the  stupendous  monuments  which 
were  there  erected.  As  long  as  these  were  contemplated,  no 
mind  could  well  remain  insensible  to  the  powers  of  the  intel- 

1  See  Storia  della  Letterat.  i. — Also  Winckelmann,  i. 

*  Ep.  1.  vii.  ep.  13. — 1.  i.  ep.  8. — 1.  ii.  ep.  5. — And  see  also,  Voyage 
Pittoresque  de  M.  Brumi  Neergaard  dans  1'Italie  Settentrionale. 

*  See  on  this  general  subject  Tiraboschi,  ii.  iii. 


TO  476.]  LITERATURE    OF    THE    PROVINCES.  41 

lect  by  which  they  were  planned,  nor  to  the  skill  by  which 
they  were  executed.  Hence  some  sensations  of  taste  would  be 
excited  or  preserved.  In  the  more  favoured  cities  of  Africa, 
Spain,  and  Gaul,  schools  were  opened  and  endowed.  In  these 
the  Latin  and  Greek  languages  were  taught,  and  Rome  was 
indebted  to  them  for  some  of  her  first  orators,  historians,  and 
poets.  The  two  Senecas,  Lucan,  Martial,  and  Quintilian, 
were  natives  of  Spain;  Petronius  Arbiter,  Ausonius,  Sido- 
nius  Apollinaris,  and  the  orators  Julius  Florus  and  Julius 
Secundus,  so  highly  praised  by  Quintilian,  came  from  Gaul; 
and  Africa  sent  Lucius  Apulius,  Arnobius,  and  Aurelius 
Victor,  to  adorn  the  literature  of  the  capital. 

Let  one  example  suffice  of  the  manner  in  which  these  cities 
were  patronised  and  ennobled.  Lyons,  far  less  ancient  than 
many  other  cities  in  its  neighbourhood,  which  the  Romans,  or 
the  Greeks,  or  the  Gauls  had  founded,  was  built  by  an  order 
of  the  senate  soon  after  the  death  of  Caesar.  The  disaffected 
legions  under  Plancus  were  employed  in  the  work;  a  Roman 
colony  was  soon  introduced;  and  the  soil  was  covered  by 
aqueducts,  baths,  and  theatres.  This  city  became  the  metro- 
polis of  Celtic  Gaul.  In  order  more  effectually  to  check  the 
incursions  of  some  barbarous  people,  Augustus  repaired 
thither,  and  during  a  residence  of  three  years  continued  to 
add  to  its  embellishments.  Caligula  after  this  visited  Lyons, 
and,  in  the  temple  which  had  been  erected  in  honour  of  Au- 
gustus, he  appointed  games  to  be  celebrated,  and  literary 
contests  of  Greek  and  Latin  eloquence  to  be  exhibited. 
Finally,  his  successor  Claudius,  by  a  decree  of  the  senate  ob- 
tained for  this  favourite  city,  in  which  he  is  said  to  have  been 
born,  all  the  privileges  of  a  Roman  colony — that  is,  the  privi- 
leges of  Roman  citizenship.  The  century  of  its  foundation 
was  the  century  of  its  greatest  splendour;  but  this  century 
was  scarcely  completed,  when  Lyons,  by  a  sudden  fire,  was 
reduced  to  ashes. 

Lyons  was  afterwards  rebuilt;  and  we  read  that  the  prince 
Domitian  made  it  the  place  of  his  retreat,  in  order,  as  he  pre- 
tended, to  improve  his  mind  by  the  study  of  eloquence,  and 
the  muses.1  The  munificence  of  Trajan  was  extended  to 
Lyon.«,  and  it  experienced  the  liberalities  of  Adrian. 

The  literary  taste  of  this  city  soon  became  celebrated;  for 

1  Tacit.  Hist.  1.  iv. 


42  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.   14 

we  find  Pliny  expressing  his  joy,  that  his  works  were  much 
admired  at  Lyons.1  Its  municipal  schools  were  frequented; 
and  in  the  fourth  century,  when  Rome  was  in  want  of  a 
professor,  Lyons  could  furnish  the  orator  Palladius.2  In 
the  Theodosian  code3  a  law  may  be  read,  addressed  by 
Gratian  to  the  prefect  of  Gaul,  which  shows  what  attention 
was  paid  to  the  literary  prosperity  of  the  provinces.  It 
enacts,  that  the  ablest  men,  in  Greek  and  Latin  letters,  shall 
be  chosen  to  teach  in  all  the  metropolitan  cities ;  and  it 
appoints  their  salaries.  On  this  it  may  be  remarked,  that  the 
Greek  language  was  then  everywhere  taught,  and  that 
oratory,  poetry,  and  grammar  (which  are  particularly  men- 
tioned), were  the  studies  which  were  most  encouraged.  Of 
persons  eminent  in  these  studies,  a  list  is  supplied  by  the 
historians  of  Lyons;  but  we  may  infer  the  vitiation  of  their 
taste  from  a  letter  of  one  of  their  bishops  to  St.  Ambrose  of 
Milan,  in  which  he  complains  that,  in  their  fastidious  squeam- 
ishness  they  despised  the  simplicity  of  the  Scriptures,  as^  not 
written  according  to  the  rules  of  classical  composition. 

In  the  fifth  century,  after  various  disasters,  Lyons  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  Burgundian  Vandals;  but  it  could  then 
boast  of  numbering  Sidonius  Apollinaris  among  its  citizens. 
The  virtues  and  the  talents  of  Sidonius  Apollinaris  caused  him 
to  be  deemed  the  ornament  of  the  age.  He  had  studied  the 
exact  sciences,  and  was  versed  in  jurisprudence;  but  the 
charms  of  poetry  seduced  him  from  graver  pursuits;  and  it 
is  curious  to  read  the  addresses  which,  in  the  form  of  pane- 
gyrics, he  pronounced  before  three  successive  emperors;  the 
first  of  which  was  recompensed  by  a  statue  crowned  with 
laurel;  whilst  the  second  obtained  signal  favours  for  his 
native  city;  and  for  the  third  he  was  honoured  with  the 
government  of  Rome.  The  first  and  last  were  spoken  in  this 
city.  The  second  in  Lyons.  The  muse  of  Sidonius  was  some- 
times grave,  and  often  playful;  but  of  his  poems  it  has  been 
remarked,  that  they  are  not  recommended  so  much  by  their 
classical  purity,  or  the  harmony  of  their  versification,  as  by 

1  Ep.  1.  ix.  ep.  11. 

2  Of  this  Palladius  an  epigram  is  extant,  not  void  of  wit,  written  on  the 
occasion  of  a  copy  of  the  Iliad  being  eaten  by  an  ass  : 

Carminis  Iliaci  libros  consumpsit  asellus  : 
Hoc  fatum  Troja  est,  aut  equus,  aut  asiuus. 
1  Cod.  tfheod.  lex.  xi. 


TO  476.]  LITERATURE    OF    THE    PROVINCES.  43 

accounts  of  peculiar  usages,  interesting  facts,  personal  cha- 
racters, and  amusing  anecdotes.  Sidonius  Apollinaris  had 
spent  forty-two  years  in  honourable  ease,  when  he  was  unex- 
pectedly called  to  the  see  of  Auvergne,  since  named  Cler- 
mont.  It  was  not  without  reluctance  that  he  obeyed  this 
call ;  and,  turning  his  back  on  his  wife,  and  on  the  Muses,  he 
took  orders,  and  devoted  the  remainder  of  his  days  to  the 
studies  best  becoming  his  new  station,  and  the  duties  of  an 
episcopal  life.  He  died  about  the  year  482. 1 

Lyons,  I  have  said,  was  peculiarly  favoured;  but  the 
history  of  other  cities,  as  of  Marseilles,  Bourdeaux,  Toulouse, 
would  show,  that  they  were  not  destitute  of  patronage,  nor  of 
the  opportunities  of  improvement,  which  public  schools  and 
able  professors  could  supply.  But  when  the  western  empire 
fell,  the  state  of  literature  and  of  the  arts  in  the  provinces 
was  assimilated  in  its  destiny  to  that  in  the  capital;  though 
in  the  provinces  the  causes  of  decline  were  more  sudden  and 
rapid  in  their  operation. 

Enough  has,  perhaps,  already  been  incidentally  said,  to 
point  out  what  these  causes  were.  In  speaking  of  the  de- 
cline of  eloquence,  I  neglected  to  mention  a  work,  written 
expressly  on  the  subject,  in  the  reign  of  Vespasian,  though 
who  was  the  author  is  not  agreed  among  the  learned.2  In 
this  dialogue,  the  interlocutors  discuss  the  point  with  much 
animation,  and  in  a  style  more  easy  and  unaffected  than  was 
usual  in  that  period.  The  cause  of  the  moderns  is  main- 
tained with  ability;  but  we  soon  discover  to  which  side  the 
claim  of  superiority  is  to  be  adjudged.  Having  premised 
that  the  eloquence  of  the  ancients  was  "  manly,  sound,  and 
vigorous,"  Messala,  the  speaker,  proceeds  to  describe  the 
orators  of  the  day  :  "  The  most  homely  dress,"  he  says, 
"  is  preferable  to  gaudy  colours,  and  meretricious  orna- 
ments. The  style  in  vogue,  at  pi-esent,  is  an  innovation 
against  everything  which  is  just  and  natural.  It  is  not  even 
manly.  The  luxuriance  of  phrase,  the  inanity  of  tuneful 
periods,  and  the  wanton  levity  of  the  whole  composition,  are 

1  The  Ilixtitirf  littcniin-  ih-  In  ?•///<•  dr  L>/on,  by  Colonia,  has  supplied 
me  with  this  account  of  its  origin  and  splendid  state.  On  Sidonius,  see 
Bib.  Lat.  ii.  and  Cave,  Hist.  Lit. 

*  DC  Onitiiribtis,  sive  de  causis  corrupts  eloqueitlite,  ascribed  by  some  to 
Tacitus,  by  others  to  Quintilian,  and  to  be  found  generally  appended  to  the 
works  of  both. 


44  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.   14 

fit  for  nothing  but  the  histrionic  art,  and  appear  as  if  they 
were  written  for  the  stage.  To  the  disgrace  of  the  times, 
however  astonishing  it  may  appear,  it  is  the  boast,  the  pride, 
the  glory  of  our  present  orators,  that  their  periods  are  musical 
enough  either ,  for  the  dancer's  heel  or  the  warbler's  throat." 
Then  what  causes,  it  is  asked,  for  it  cannot  be  a  dearth  of 
men  nor  a  decay  of  talents,  have  produced  these  fatal  effects, 
not  in  eloquence  alone,  but  in  the  rest  of  the  polite  arts,  which, 
it  is  plain,  have  lost  their  former  lustre  ?  "  The  causes  of 
this  decay,"  says  Messala,  "  are  not  difficult  to  be  traced  : 
they  are — the  dissipation  of  our  young  men,  the  inattention 
of  parents,  the  ignorance  of  those  who  pretend  to  give  in- 
struction, and  the  total  neglect  of  ancient  discipline.  The 
mischief  began  at  Rome;  it  has  overrun  all  Italy;  and  is 
now,  with  rapid  strides,  spreading  through  the  provinces." 
He  dwells  on  each  of  these  topics,  after  having  previously 
stated  what,  in  former  times,  from  the  cradle  to  manhood,  was 
the  system  of  education,  and  particularly  of  those  designed 
for  the  bar. 

Eloquence,  he  afterwards  observes,  must  flourish  most, 
"  under  a  bold  and  turbulent  democracy;"  and  he  adds,  that 
the  change  in  the  form  of  government,  the  honours  which 
formerly  attended  oratory,  the  magnitude  of  the  causes 
brought  before  the  people,  in  one  word,  the  whole  system  of 
more  free,  but  of  more  tempestuous  times,  must  be  taken  into 
the  account,  in  order  to  obtain  a  full  solution  of  the  question. 
The  speaker,  who,  in  this  part  of  the  dialogue,  is  Maternus, 
thus  concludes:  "  My  friends,  had  it  been  your  lot  to  have 
lived  under  the  old  republic;  and  the  men,  whom  we  so 
much  admire,  had  been  reserved  for  the  present  age;  if 
some  god  had  changed  the  period  of  their  and  of  your  ex- 
istence, the  flame  of  genius  had  been  yours,  and  the  chiefs  of 
antiquity  would  now  be  acting  with  minds  subdued  to  the 
temper  of  the  times."1 

Nothing  can  be  more  just  than  the  above  observation;  and 
I  have  no  doubt  that  the  causes  assigned  for  the  decay  of 
eloquence  were  satisfactory:  but  will  they  account,  as  is 
insinuated,  for  the  decline  of  other  arts?  It  has  not  seemed 
so  to  more  modern  reasoners,  who  have  accumulated  cause 
upon  cause,  without  solving  the  problem.  They  talk  of  the 

1  Mr.  Murphy's  Translation  of  this  Dialogue  is  excellent.  ; 


TO  476.]  DECAY    OF    LITERATURE.  45 

patronage  of  princes,  without  which  the  incitements  to  great 
exertions  fail;  and  of  the  undisturbed  tranquillity  which  the 
habits  of  retirement  demand;  they  add,  a  dissoluteness  of 
general  morals,  and  that  restraint  which  is  imposed  by  the 
forms  of  arbitrary  government.  These  are  moral  causes; 
while  others  have  recourse  to  those  of  a  physical  nature,  such 
as  climate,  temperature  of  the  air,  and  even  noxious  exhala- 
tions. That  a  combination  of  all  these  causes  would  have  a 
powerful  influence,  cannot  be  denied:  but  each  separately 
would  not  be  adequate  to  the  effect  in  question,  and  they  did 
not  exist  in  combination. 

To  urge  as  a  cause  of  the  decay  of  literature,  a  failure  in 
natural  talents,  seems  absurd;  but  if  these  talents,  however 
vigorous  in  their  native  character,  be  not  properly  cultivated, 
or,  if  cultivated,  be  not  directed  by  a  just  taste,  agreeably  to 
the  most  approved  models  of  excellence,  a  proportionate  fall- 
ing off,  in  whatever  may  be  attempted,  must  necessarily 
ensue.  This  argument  has  been  already  advanced;  and,  if 
applied  to  the  circumstances  of  the  times  through  which  we 
have  passed,  ;it  will,  in  a  great  measure,  account  for  the 
general  effect.  Encouragement  was  given,  and  the  study  of 
each  art  was  not  neglected;  but  no  advances  to  perfection 
were  made.  Decline  rapidly  succeeded  to  decline,  till  the 
fall  was  accomplished.  If  to  the  bad  use  which  the  artists 
made  of  the  means  which  lay  before  them,  we  join  the  tempo- 
rary incursions  and  final  settlements  of  the  barbarous  nations, 
what  more  can  be  required,  unless  it  be  the  fluctuation 
to  which  all  human  concerns  are  subject?  We  know  the 
progress  of  art,  observes  a  learned  foreigner,1  in  every  age 
and  country.  Rude  at  first,  it  proceeds  from  low  beginnings,, 
and  goes  on  improving,  till  it  reaches  the  highest  perfection 
of  which  human  skill  seems  susceptible.  But  at  that  point  it 
is  never  stationary:  it  soon  declines,  and  from  the  corruption 
of  what  is  good,  it  is  not  in  the  nature  of  man  to  rise  again  to 
the  same  degree  of  excellence. 

I  must  request  that  the  reader  will  attend  to  the  following 
veryjust  observations.  "  It  might  naturally  be  supposed," 
remarks  the  author2  whose  words  I  quote,  "  when  standards 

1  Brotier,  tlie  learned  editor  of  Tacitus,  who,  to  fill  up  an  unfortunate 
cliasm  in  the  Dialogue,  has  added  a  supplement,  marked  by  much  taste  and 
judgment. 

-  Analytical  Inquiry  into  the  Principles  of  Taste,  by  R.  P.  Knight, 
p.  4-.JIJ. 


46  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.   14 

of  excellence  were  universally  acknowledged  and  admired  in 
every  art;  in  poetry  and  elocution;  in  painting  and  sculp- 
ture; that  the  style  and  manner  at  least  of  those  standards 
would  be  universally  followed;  and  that  the  wit  and  inge- 
nuity of  man  would  be  employed  only  in  adding  the  utmost 
refinements  of  execution  to  that,  which  admitted  of  no  im- 
provements from  invention.  But  this  is  not  the  case:  on  the 
contrary,  itacomparatum  esthumanum  ingenium,  ut  optimarum 
rerum  satietate  defatigetur ;  unde  Jit,  artes  necessitatis  vi 
crescere  aut  decrescere  semper,  et  ad  fastigium  evectas,  ibi 
non  posse  consistere.  Perfection  in  taste  and  style  has  no 
sooner  been  reached,  than  it  has  been  abandoned,  even  by 
those  who  not  only  professed  the  warmest,  but  felt  the  sin- 
cerest  admiration  for  the  models  which  they  forsook.  The 
style  of  Virgil  and  Horace  in  poetry,  and  that  of  Caesar  and 
Cicero  in  prose,  continued  to  be  admired  and  applauded 
through  all  the  succeeding  ages  of  Roman  eloquence,  as  the 
true  standard  of  taste  and  eloquence  in  writing.  Yet  no  one 
attempted  to  imitate  them.  All  writers  seek  for  applause; 
and  applause  is  gained  only  by  novelty.  The  style  of  Cicero 
and  Virgil  was  new  in  the  Latin  language,  when  they  wrote; 
but  in  the  age  of  Seneca  and  Lucan  it  was  no  longer  so;  and 
though  it  still  imposed  by  the  stamp  of  authority,  it  could  not 
even  please  without  it;  so  that  living  writers,  whose  names 
depended  on  their  works,  and  not  their  works  upon  their 
names,  were  obliged  to  seek  for  other  [means  of  exciting 
public  attention,  and  acquiring  public  approbation.  In  the 
succeeding  age,  the  refinements  of  these  writers  became  old 
and  insipid;  and  those  of  Statius  and  Tacitus  were  success- 
fully employed  to  gratify  the  restless  pruriency  of  innova- 
tion. In  all  other  ages  and  countries,  where  letters  have 
been  successfully  cultivated,  the  progression  has  been  nearly 
the  same." 

I  might  add,  I  believe,  that  other  causes  contributed  much 
to  vitiate  the  purity  of  the  Latin  language,  that  is,  the  coun- 
tenance given  to  learned  foreigners  from  the  provinces,  and 
the  fashion  of  teaching  Greek  to  the  children  in  their  earliest 
infancy.  Of  this,  the  author  of  the  dialogue  complains  : 
"  The  infant,"  he  says,  "  is  intrusted  to  a  Greek  chamber- 
maid;" and  we  have  abundant  proof  of  the  partiality  which 
has  always  been  entertained  for  that  enchanting  language 
and  its  professors.  Had  this  been  adopted  with  a  view  of 


TO  476.]  INFLUENCE    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  47 

perusing  those  models  of  classical  excellence  which  formed 
the  taste  of  Cicero  and  his  contemporaries,  the  age  might 
have  continued  to  experience  the  good  effects;  but  the  prac- 
tice at  this  time  appears  to  have  been  upheld  only  by  vanity 
or  affectation.  The  purity  of  the  native  tongue  was,  in  the 
meantime,  corrupted  by  the  commixture  of  two  different 
idioms. 

The  same,  but  more  vitiating,  effects  happened  from  the 
intercourse  with  provincial  strangers.  These  brought  with 
them  the  peculiarities  of  their  respective  dialects,  which  could 
not  fail,  more  or  less,  to  affect  the  substance,  structure,  or 
combinations  of  an  acquired  speech.  New  words  and  phrases 
would  be  introduced  till  the  whole  tissue  of  the  language 
would  experience  a  visible  change. 

And  if,  in  the  best  age  of  the  Roman  language,  the  style  of 
Livy  could  justly  be  charged  with  Patavinity ;  what  might 
not  be  expected  when  the  Senecas  and  other  provincial 
writers,  by  their  brilliant  conceits  and  their  alluring  defects, 
had  formed  a  new  school,  and  given  new  force  to  the  vitia- 
tion of  public  taste? 

In  enumerating  these  various  causes,  I  must  not  omit  the 
new  religion,  which,  as  it  was  undermining  the  whole  system 
of  heathenish  worship,  so  intimately  interwoven  with  all  the 
concerns  of  domestic  and  public  life,  may  be  thought  in  no 
small  degree  to  have  affected  literature  and  the  arts.  Some 
branches  of  philosophy,  and  particularly  poetry,  of  which  so 
large  a  part  had  a  reference  to  the  mythological  fictions  of  the 
established  worship,  could  not  well  be  separated,  it  was  sup- 
posed, from  the  cause  which  it  was  calculated  to  support. 
And  the  arts  of  painting  and  sculpture  were,  it  must  be 
allowed,  principally  engaged  in  works  immediately  connected 
with  the  worship  of  the  gods.  But  was  the  fact  really  such, 
as,  on  a  superficial  view,  might  be  apprehended  ? 

If  we  consider  the  state  of  Christianity  as  it  was  during 
the  three  first  hundred  years  after  its  promulgation,  we  shall 
find  that  the  church  was  assailed  by  the  learned,  ridiculed  by 
the  witty,  opposed  by  the  powerful,  and  on  all  sides  oppressed 
and  persecuted.  Yet  it  grew,  and  might  be  said  to  prosper; 
and  out  of  the  numbers,  of  all  ranks,  that  continued  to  be 
added  to  the  faithful,  we  may  fairly  calculate,  that  not  a  few 
under  the  awful  impressions  of  their  new  calling  were  drawn 
away  from  their  former  pursuits,  whether  of  ambition,  of 


48  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.   14 

interest,  or  of  literature.  The  schools  of  human  learning 
would,  from  obvious  motives,  often  be  deserted  by  the  disciples 
of  Christ,  as  they  and  their  children  had  other  lessons  to  learn, 
and  other  doctrines  to  imbibe.  But  when  we  look  to  the 
list1  of  learned  Christians,  particularly  among  the  Greeks,  who 
flourished  during  those  three  centuries;  and  among  the  Latins 
to  Minucius  Felix,  Tertullian,  and  Lactantius ;  I  think,  it  may, 
with  truth,  be  said,  that,  at  the  head  of  the  former,  the  great 
Origen  was  surpassed  by  none  of  his  contemporaries;  and  that 
the  latter,  even  in  the  beauties  of  style,  were  equalled  by  few. 
To  the  apologists  of  the  new  religion,  if  we  would  be  just,  we 
must  chiefly  confine  our  observations,  when  the  question  be- 
comes one  of  literary  merit;  for  these  only  had  subjects  before 
them  which  called  for  the  research  of  learning,  and  the  dis- 
play of  eloquence.  The  writings  of  the  three  Latins  are  not 
exempt  from  defects;  but  they  are  evidently  those  of  the  age; 
and  as  to  Tertullian,  his  style  is  truly  African,  but  still  occa- 
sionally displaying  a  majesty  or  a  copiousness  which  is  often 
calculated  to  impress,  or  to  delight.2 

If  these  men  and  many  other  converts  to  Christianity 
adopted  a  new  faith,  they  did  not  always  quit  their  former 
professions,  and  much  less  that  temper  of  mind  which  becomes 
habitual.  When,  therefore,  inclination  or  the  interest  of  their 
profession  demanded  their  talents,  they  would  come  forward 
with  the  same  ardour,  the  same  love  of  victory,  and  the  same 
ambition  to  excel,  as  might  previously  have  animated  their 
exertions. 

It  is  only  then,  it  appears,  from  the  new  turn  that  was 
given  to  many  minds;  from  the  aversion  strongly  instilled  of 
everything  connected  with  heathenish  worship;  and  from  the 
diminution  that  would  necessarily  follow,  in  the  number  of 
those  who  might  have  frequented  the  public  schools,  that  the 
cause  of  profane  literature  could  be  injured  by  the  introduction 
of  Christianity.  But  philosophy  would  still  feel  an  interest 
in  inquiries  after  truth;  injured  rights  and  insulted  virtue 
would  demand  the  aid  of  oratory;  the  varied  events  of  the 
times  would  present  materials  for  history;  and  from  poetry 
nature  would  not  cease  to  claim  the  embellishments  of  her  art. 


1  See  the  Historia  Literaria  of  Cave. 

*  On  these  and  other  ecclesiastical  writers,  see  Cave,  Dupin  Bib.  Eccks., 
Fleurv,  Tillemont,  &c. 


TO  476.]  LITERATURE  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  49 

The  question  then  is  not,  whether  the  prevalence  of  the 
Christian  system  might  not,  in  some  cases,  give  another 
direction  to  human  pursuits;  but  whether  it  contributed  to 
vitiate  the  literary  taste  of  the  age,  and  to  hasten  its  decline. 

Had  this  corruption  of  taste  or  its  decline  kept  pace  with 
the  progress  of  the  new  religion,  the  argument  would  have 
been  more  than  plausible;  but,  as  we  have  seen,  the  decline 
had  commenced  before  the  Christian  era  began,  and  before 
any  possible  effect  could  have  been  produced  by  a  change  in 
the  modes  of  faith  or  the  ceremonials  of  worship.  Then  why 
should  we  attempt  to  conjure  up  an  influence  which,  at  one 
time,  is  evidently  fanciful,  and,  during  three  hundred  years,  is 
afterward  uncertain  in  its  operation,  when  we  are  in  the  pos- 
session of  causes  which,  as  the  heathen  writers  themselves 
confess,  were  fully  adequate  to  the  effects? 

The  same  reasoning  will  not  apply  from  the  days  of  Con- 
stantine  to  the  fall  of  the  western  empire,  a  period  of  an 
hundred  and  sixty-three  years;  as  the  Christian  cause, 
nourished  by  the  warm  influence  of  the  court,  was  then  every- 
where prevalent.  But  literature  had  no  grounds  for  com- 
plaint. "  From  this  time,"  observes  an  eminent  modern 
writer,1  "the  Christians  applied  themselves  with  more  zeal 
and  diligence  to  the  study  of  philosophy  and  of  the  liberal 
arts.  The  emperors  encouraged  this  taste  for  learning,  and 
left  no  means  unemployed  to  excite  and  maintain  a  spirit  of 
literary  emulation  among  the  professors  of  Christianity.  For 
this  purpose,  schools  were  established  in  many  cities.  Libraries 
were  also  erected,  and  men  of  learning  and  genius  were  nobly 
recompensed  by  the  honours  and  advantages  that  were  attached 
to  the  culture  of  the  sciences  and  arts."  And  when  we 
examine  the  works,  among  the  Latins,  of  some  eminent  writers, 
such  as  those  of  Ambrose  of  Milan,  of  Jerom,  of  Sulpicius 
Severus,  of  Augustine,  and  of  the  Roman  Leo,  he  must  be 
deficient  in  equity  who,  comparing  them,  by  the  admitted 
rules  of  composition,  with  the  most  applauded  productions  of 
their  heathen  contemporaries,  hesitates  in  pronouncing  his 
opinion.  Erasmus,  indeed,  may  seem  to  indulge  an  extrava- 
gant panegyric,  when,  in  speaking  of  the  writings  of  St.  Jerom, 
he  says:  "  Not  only  has  he  left  all  Christian  writers  far  be- 
hind him;  he  even  contests  the  palm  with  Cicero.  As  to 

1  Mosbeim,  Eccles.  Hist.  i.  340. 


50  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  14 

myself,  I  candidly  own,  that  when  I  compare  them,  there  ap- 
pears to  me  something  wanting  in  the  reputed  prince  of  elo- 
quence. Such  is  the  variety  in  Jerom,  such  the  depth  of  his 
judgment,  such  the  volubility  of  his  conceptions." 

If  we  place  Sulpicius  Severus  by  the  side  of  the  six  authors 
of  the  Augustan  History  and  of  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  it 
will  not  be  difficult  to  determine  which  amongst  them  is  most 
remarkable  for  perspicuity,  for  purity,  and  for  elegance.  The 
work  of  Severus  is  a  sacred  history  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world  to  the  year  400;  and  in  biography,  his  Life  of  St. 
Martin  of  Tours  may  be  read  with  pleasure.  Of  St.  Augus- 
tine, bishop  of  Hippo,  I  will  barely  observe,  that  greater  and 
more  shining  talents  were  never  united  in  one  character; 
though  we  may  lament  that  he  was  an  African.  Hence  pro- 
ceeded that  involution  and  prolixity,  that  affectation  and  con- 
ceit of  phrase,  which  often  exhaust  the  patience1  and  excite 
disgust. 

When  we  turn  back  to  the  studies  of  these  men,  and  view 
the  schools  which  they  frequented;  the  cities  which  they 
illustrated  by  their  lectures;  the  countries  through  which 
they  travelled  in  quest  of  science;  the  numerous  works  which 
proceeded  from  their  pens;  the-general  ardour  by  which  all 
their  pursuits  were  animated,  and  which  seemed  only  to  relax 
as  the  current  of  life  ceased  to  flow, — we  shall  learn,  that  the 
Christians  of  this  period  were  not  negligent  of  the  various 
branches  of  science;  that  literature  was  even  indebted  to  their 
exertions;  and  that  the  blemishes  by  which  their  writings 
are  disfigured  originated  from  those  causes  which  have  been 
already  sufficiently  explained. 

Speaking  of  the  Christian  writers  of  these  ages,  a  modern 
critic2  confidently  asserts,  that  they  exhibit  a  more  elegant 
style,  and  a  less  vitiated  taste,  than  their  Gentile  contempo- 
raries; and  he  ingeniously  accounts  for  the  superiority. 
"  When  an  author,"  says  he,  "has  a  subject  before  him  which 
is  interesting  to  his  feelings,  and  is  attractive  by  its  novelty, 
he  will  write  with  force,  whilst  he  will  avoid  that  languor 
and  affectation  so  often  to  be  found  in  those  who  treat  of 
subjects  which  repeated  discussion  has  rendered  familial'  to 
the  public  mind.  The  latter  are  usually  characterized  by  an 

1  See  on  the  history  of  these  men,  Cave's  Historia,  Tillemont,  Dupiii,  &c. 

2  Deuina.  Viceiide  della  Lett.  1.  i.  c.  xxxv. 


TO  476.]  CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  ARTS.  51 

ostentatious  parade  of  figurative  language,  by  an  exuberance 
of  antitheses,  and  a  frothy  phraseology;  while  the  former, 
strongly  impressed  with  the  dignity  of  their  theme,  are  more 
distinguished  by  energy,  conciseness,  and  eloquence,  which 
are  best  fitted  to  maintain  their  cause,  to  impress  conviction, 
and  to  repel  hostility."  He  then  mentions  the  principal 
Christian  writers,  and,  contrasting  their  styles,  pronounces 
a  decisive  judgment. 

The  arts  I  approach  with  trembling  apprehension.  These 
had  to  suffer  from  the  new  establishment;  and  we  may  notice 
its  beginning,  when,  at  Ephesus,  an  uproar  arose  among  the 
artists,  because  Paul  had  taught,  "  that  there  be  no  gods 
which  are  made  with  hands;"  by  which  the  temple  of  the 
great  goddess  Diana  was  likely  to  be  despised,  and  her  mag- 
nificence destroyed.1  The  genius  of  the  Grecian  artists  had 
been  principally  displayed  in  forming  the  effigies  of  their 
deities.  What,  then,  was  to  be  expected  from  the  influence  of 
a  system,  of  which  the  leading  tenet  was,  that  "  there  be  no 
gods  that  are  made  with  hands?"  What  was  apprehended  at 
Ephesus  was  equally  to  be  expected  wherever  that  system 
should  prevail.  The  artists  woutd  be  left  without  employ- 
ment, the  temples  without  worshippers,  and  their  idols  derided 
or  destroyed. 

Zeal,  properly  enlightened,  would  easily  have  discriminated 
between  the  works  of  men's  hands,  and  their  abuse.  It  would 
have  spared  the  temples,  which  might  be  adapted  to  better 
purposes;  and  while  it  ridiculed  their  worship,  would  have 
preserved  the  statues  as  monuments  of  art.  The  temples,  as 
we  know,  were  often  spared;  and  there  is  a  law  of  Honorius 
which  prohibited  sacrifices,  but  directed  the  edifices  not  to  be 
destroyed.  It  is  evident  that  I  am  speaking  of  the  period  in 
which  Christianity  was  triumphant.  At  this  time,  it  not  un- 
frequently  happened  that  new  edifices  for  Christian  worship 
were  constructed  from  old  materials,  and  the  skill  of  the  artist 
was  sometimes  manifested  in  a  monstrous  junction  of  bases 
and  capitals.2  Many  ornamental  parts  were  at  the  same  time 
taken  to  embellish  the  palaces  of  the  great. 

The  statues,  for  which  heathenism  had  expressed  a  reli- 
gious veneration,  experienced  a  worse  fate.  But  can  we  be 
surprised  ?  Look  to  the  iconoclasm  of  the  eighth  century  in 

1  Acts,  c.  xix.  *  Wiiickelraann,  ii.  JW6. 

E    2 


52  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  14 

the  East,  and  to  that  of  our  own  country,  in  a  much  later 
period,  when  the  Apollo  of  Belvidere,  or  any  other  exquisite 
specimen  of  art,  had  they  been  said  to  represent  a  Christian 
saint,  would  have  been  dashed  to  pieces  or  crumbled  into  dust 
by  its  impetuous  fury.  Fanaticism  never  differs  from  itself. 
The  civilized  nations  of  Europe,  and  particularly  Italy,  have 
expiated  the  extravagant  superstition  of  their  ancestors,  by 
the  encouragement  which  they  have  since  given  to  the  arts, 
and  by  the  veneration  with  which  every  fragment  has  been 
preserved,  which  time,  barbarism,  and  fanaticism  had  spared. 
The  establishment  of  Christianity  then,  or  rather,  the  mis- 
guided zeal  of  its  votaries,  was  adverse  to  the  fine  arts.  In 
another  sense,  the  very  spirit  of  that  religion  was  adverse  to 
their  encouragement.  When  the  Greeks  exhibited  the  images 
of  their  deities,  the  talents  of  the  greatest  masters  were 
employed.  But  the  God  of  the  Christians,  a  Being  abstracted 
from  matter,  and  infinite  in  his  attributes,  could  not  be  brought 
within  the  grasp  of  sense,  or  delineated  under  any  palpable 
form,  however  grateful  or  sublime.  To  make  the  attempt 
was  an  act  of  impiety;  for  it  degraded  his  nature,  and  annulled 
his  essence.  Let  us,  for  a*  moment,  .advert  to  the  Olympian 
Jupiter  by  Phidias,  which  was  the  masterpiece  of  ancient  art, 
and  was  copied,  as  himself  acknowledged,  from  the  description 
of  the  god  in  Homer,  when  the  prayer  of  Thetis  being  granted, 
the  poet  says  : 

"  He  ceased,  and  under  his  dark  brows  the  nod 
Vouchsafed  of  confirmation.     All  around 
The  sovereign's  everlasting  head,  his  curls 
Ambrosial  shook,  and  the  huge  mountain  reeled." 

To  the  dark  brows  and  ambrosial  curls,  the  artist  had 
added  an  image  of  victory  in  the  right  hand,  and  a  burnished 
sceptre  in  the  left,  and  over  the  whole  figure  he  had  cast  an 
air  of  divine  majesty,  which  impressed  the  beholder  with 
veneration  and  astonishment.  The  above  lines  are  calculated 
to  excite  a  sensation  of  respect  and  awe.  But  tell  me  :  that 
this  form  shall  represent  him,  whose  name  is,  /  am  that  lam; 
"  whose  power  is  infinite;  whose  presence  is  universal,  and 
from  whose  knowledge  even  no  thought  is  concealed,"  the 
illusion  instantly  vanishes,  and  the  sublime  work  of  Phidias 
dwindles  to  an  ordinary  mortal  with  a  bushy  head  of  hair 
dark  eyebrows,  and  a  flowing  beard. 

But  I  pretend  not  to  say  that  when  the  divine  models  were 


TO  476.]  GREEK    LITERATURE.  53 

taken  away  from  the  artist,  other  subjects  were  not  left,  and 
many  new  ones  supplied  by  the  Christian  institute,  on  all 
which  we  know  that  the  pencil  and  the  chisel  have  been 
exercised  with  eminent  success. 

As  Greece  has  been  often  mentioned,  and  her  influence  on 
the  literature  and  arts  of  the  West  has  at  all  times  been 
obvious — it  may  be  acceptable  to  the  reader  to  know  what 
was  their  fate  in  a  more  genial  soil. 

After  the  fall  of  Perseus,  the  last  of  the  Macedonian  kings, 
whom  the  Achaians  were  accused  of  favouring,  we  read  of 
more  than  a  thousand  Greeks,  of  distinguished  merit,  who,  by 
command  of  the  conquerors,  were  transported  into  Italy,  in 
order  to  account  for  their  conduct.  This  account  was  not 
demanded;  but,  by  another  sentence  not  less  arbitrary,  they 
were  dispersed  in  the  neighbouring  cities ;  and  there  detained 
for  more  than  seventeen  years.  Polybius  the  historian  was 
one  of  this  number;  and  when  his  companions,  who  had 
diffused  a  love  of  Grecian  literature,  were  permitted  to  return, 
he  remained  in  Rome,  where  his  great  talents  and  many 
virtues  had  obtained  general  esteem.  He  was  particularly 
intimate  in  the  family  of  Paulus  Emilius;  and  he  became  the 
friend,  the  adviser,  and  the  companion  of  the  Younger  Scipio.1 
At  Rome  he  wrote  his  History;  but  he  wrote  it  in  the  lan- 
guage of  his  country.  Of  this  admirable  work  the  greater 
part  is  lost;  but  that  which  remains  deserves  to  be  recom- 
mended to  the  perusal  of  the  statesman,  for  its  lessons  of  poli- 
tical wisdom,  and  to  the  soldier,  for  its  judicious  instructions 
in  the  military  art. 

Panetius,  whom  Cicero  calls  the  first  of  Stoic  philosophers,2 
opened  at  the  same  period  a  school  in  Rome,  which  was  fre- 
quented by  persons  of  the  greatest  distinction;  and  Polybius3 
observes  that  other  learned  Greeks  were  daily  crowding  to 
the  city.  A  severe  decree  of  the  senate,  of  which  the  motive 
is  not  declared,  soon,  indeed,  ordered  the  Greek  professors 
into  exile,  but  an  impression  had  been  made  in  favour  of 
science,  and,  within  a  few  years,  a  political  disturbance  in 
Greece  brought  three  of  the  most  renowned  Athenian  philo- 
sophers to  the  Roman  capital.  These  teachers  of  wisdom  dis- 
played all  the  elegance  and  pomp  of  oratory,  and  were  heard 

1  See  the  Boman  writers  on  this  era  about  the  year  of  Rome,  580. 

2  Acad.  quoest.  1.  iv.  »  Exemp.  Virt.  et  vit.  c.  73. 


54  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  14 

with  admiration.  The  young  men,  says  Plutarch,1  abandon- 
ing every  other  pleasure,  devoted  their  minds  to  the  study  of 
philosophy.  The  austere  Cato  was  disgusted.  He  perceived 
that  the  love  of  arms  would  shortly  be  absorbed  in  a  passion 
for  letters.  The  fathers  of  the  senate  were  not  exempt  from 
the  contagion;  and  he  feared  the  effect  on  the  public  mind. 
He,  therefore,  exerted  his  authority  to  procure  the  dismission 
of  these  dangerous  emissaries  of  science,  vainly  hoping  that 
bis  fellow-citizens  would  then  return  to  the  graver  pursuits 
of  their  fathers. 

While  the  genius  of  Grecian  literature  triumphed  in  Rome, 
the  arms  of  Rome  were  gaining  another  triumph  over  the 
liberties  and  independence  of  Greece.  Some  provocation,  it 
may  be  admitted,  had  been  given  to  the  proud  republic;  but 
to  dare  to  be  free,  when  the  neighbouring  nations  had  sub- 
mitted to  be  slaves,  was  deemed  ample  provocation.  "  In  the 
divided  state  of  the  Grecian  republics,  though  the  Achaian 
league  formed  a  loose  bond  of  union  amongst  them,  resistance 
served  only  to  irritate  animosity,  and  to  provoke  oppression. 
This  fate,  Metellus,  the  Roman  general,  seemed  anxious  to 
avert;  but  he  was  succeeded  by  the  consul  Mummius,  who, 
at  the  head  of  a  powerful  army,  advanced  into  the  country, 
gained  a  complete  victory,  plundered,  and  burnt  Corinth, 
which  the  arts  of  painting  and  sculpture  seemed  to  have 
selected  for  their  favourite  abode.  Soon  after  this,  commis- 
sioners arrived  from  Rome,  by  whom  the  popular  governments 
in  all  the  cities  were  abolished,  magistrates  established  under 
a  Roman  praetor,  the  Achaian  league  dissolved,  and  Greece 
reduced  to  a  province  of  the  empire.  This  was  effected  in 
the  one  hundred  and  forty-sixth  year  before  the  Christian 
era,  and  the  same  in  which  Carthage  fell. 

In  this  disastrous  period  of  the  Grecian  history,  we  must 
not,  either  in  arts  or  letters,  expect  to  find  that  transcendent 
excellence  which  had  excited  the  admiration  of  the  polished 
world.  From  the  age  of  Alexander,  the  Greeks,  compelled 
to  submit  to  a  master,  had  lost  that  elevation  of  character 
which  liberty  had  produced;  and  a  great  degeneracy  soon 
appeared  in  every  intellectual  pursuit.  As  the  spirit  of 
patriotism  vanished,  the  fire  of  genius  seemed  to  become 
extinct;  and  it  is  generally  agreed,  that  their  subsequent 

1  Plut.  in  Cat.  Cens. 


TO  476.]  DECAY  OF  ATHENS.  55 

artists,  as  well  as  their  poets,  orators,  historians,  and  philoso- 
phers, were  mere  imitators  of  the  great  originals  of  their 
country.  It  would  have  been  well  had  they  been  content 
only  to  imitate;  but  whilst  incapable  of  primitive  excellence, 
they  still  coveted  distinction,  and  vainly  struggled  to  merit 
fame  by  false  conceits  and  artificial  refinements.  Notwith- 
standing this  marked  degeneracy,  the  language  of  Greece  was 
everywhere  spoken,  and  Athens  remained  the  principal  seat 
of  philosophy  and  of  the  arts. 

Of  the  political  state  of  Athens  it  is  proper  to  observe,  that, 
in  the  Macedonian  war,  having  remained  attached  to  the 
interests  of  Rome,  she  shared  not  the  fate  of  the  other  cities; 
and  even  after  the  destruction  of  Corinth,  and  the  dissolution 
of  the  Achaian  league,  she  continued  in  the  full  possession  of 
her  ancient  liberties.  But  her  consequence  was  gone.  And 
things  remained  in  this  state,  without  any  remarkable  altera- 
tion, till,  in  the  Mithridatic  war,  she  was  seduced  by  the 
artifices  of  one  of  her  citizens,  the  philosopher  Aristo,  to 
declare  against  the  Romans.  The  year  after  this  fatal  step, 
Sylla  entered  Greece,  and  sitting  down  before  Athens,  con- 
tinued the  siege  with  various  success;  and,  after  a  desperate 
resistance,  during  which  the  edifices,  sacred  groves,  and  the 
walks  of  the  academy  without  the  walls  were  destroyed,  he 
forced  an  entrance,  and  delivered  up  the  city  to  the  plunder 
of  his  soldiers.  Still  the  relentless  conqueror  could  feel 
something  like  sympathy  for  the  destiny  of  Athens;  and  he 
said  that  he  would  pardon  the  children  for  the  sake  of  their 
fathers.  His  resentment,  however,  impelled  him  to  direct 
many  stately  buildings  to  be  levelled;  and  he  collected  an 
immense  booty  in  the  precious  productions  of  the  arts.  After 
this  he  left  the  unfortunate  city  to  ruminate  over  the  miseries 
which  its  own  temerity  had  occasioned,  and  to  the  enjoyment 
of  such  liberty  as  could  be  felt  amidst  ruins.1  These  calami- 
ties were  succeeded  by  a  period  of  tranquillity,  which  expe- 
rienced some  temporary  interruptions  during  the  civil  com- 
motions of  the  empire. 

If  the  allurements  of  the  Roman  capital  had  attracted  so 
many  learned  Greeks,  while  their  country  was  free,  we  must 
now  expect  to  behold  a  more  general  emigration.  The  various 
sects  of  philosophers,  stoics,  epicureans,  peripatetics,  acade- 
mics, appeared  in  Rome;2  inculcated  the  principles  of  their 

1  Plut.  in  Sul.  2  See  Brucker,  Hist.  Crit.  Pliilos.  ii.  c.  1. 


56  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  14 

respective  schools  with  winning  sophistry;  and  failed  not  to 
add  to  the  number  of  their  followers  and  admirers.  The  works 
of  .Cicero,  which  were  written  at  a  somewhat  later  period,  will 
show  us  how  this  admiration  extended,  and  who  were  the  phi- 
losophers of  principal  distinction  who  then  resorted  to  the 
Roman  capital.  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  even  the  works 
of  Aristotle  owed  their  first  publication  to  Rome.  They  had 
been  preserved,  but  not  in  an  unmutilated  state;  and  had  not 
been  circulated  in  Greece,  when  they  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Sylla,  who,  with  other  spoils,  conveyed  them  to  Italy.1 

When  the  Augustan  age  commenced,  we  know  with  what 
ardour  every  literary  object  was  pursued,  and  that  the  Romans, 
not  satisfied  with  the  instructions  which  might  be  collected 
from  the  learned  Greeks  at  Rome,  travelled  to  Athens,  in 
order  to  study  on  the  spot  which  so  many  men  of  great  talents 
and  genius  had  adorned.  But  two  observations  must  here  be 
made,  not  very  creditable  to  Greece,  and  which  show  that 
the  sun  of  their  literary  renown  had  set.  1st.  In  looking 
over  the  list  of  writers  who  at  this  time  flourished,2  I  find  feAv 
Greek  names  of  any  eminence  :  2d.  Of  those  who  now  visited 
Greece,  it  is  said  that  the  objects  of  their  admiration  were  not 
the  works  of  contemporaries,  but  those  of  Phidias  and  Apelles, 
of  Sophocles,  Plato,  and  Demosthenes.3 

In  the  list  just  alluded  to,  are  the  two  historians  Diodorus 
Sicutus  and  Dionisius  of  Halicarnassus  ;  from  the  first  of 
whom  we  have  a  General  History  of  all  nations,  and  from  the 
second,  Roman  Antiquities;  both  in  Greek,  and  both  imper- 
fect. They  had  resided  many  years  in  Rome,  during  the 
reigns  of  Caesar  and  of  Augustus.  We  do  not  expect  to  find 
in  them  the  style  of  Thucydides  or  of  Xenophon;  but  their 
works  abound  with  valuable  information.  With  these  authors 
was  nearly  contemporary  the  celebrated  geographer  Strabo.4 

Having  taken  possession,  as  it  seemed,  of  the  Roman 
schools,  the  Greeks  were  not  willing  to  relinquish  the  place  of 
honour;  and,  during  the  succeeding  ages,  whilst  they  were 
generally  countenanced  by  the  reigning  princes,  we  find 
them  conspicuous  in  every  intellectual  pursuit,  that  of  poetry 
excepted,  and  maintaining  the  high  prerogative  of  their  lan- 

1  Bracket,  Hist.  Phil.  ii.  c.  1. 

-  See  Lenglet  du  Fresnoy,  t.  i.     Fnbricius  Bib.  Graec.  passim. 

3  Gillies :  History  of  Greece,  iv.  399. 

4  Bib.  Gnec.  iii.  iv.  v. 


TO  476.]  GREEK  WRITERS  AT  HOME.  57 

guage.  I  must  not  omit  to  mention  even  while  the  house 
of  Cassar  continued  to  disgrace  the  purple,  the  name  of 
Epictetus,  the  first  of  heathen  moralists,  whose  Enchiridion 
Christians  may  peruse  with  advantage.  To  Epictetus  we 
must  add  Arrian,  the  judicious  historian  of  the  Expeditions  of 
Alexander,  and  the  disciple  of  Epictetus  ;  Dion,  from  his 
eloquence  named  Chrysostom,  of  whom  many  orations  and  a 
treatise  on  the  Duties  of  Kings  are  extant;  and  Plutarch,  the 
most  celebrated  of  biographers,  and  the  most  agreeable  of 
moralists.  These  learned  men  were  natives  of  Asia  Minor, 
if  we  except  Plutarch,  who  was  a  Boeotian ;  but  Rome  was 
their  place  of  general  residence.1 

Nor  are  the  succeeding  writers  entitled  to  less  praise: 
Appian  of  Alexandria,  who,  in  the  reign  of  Antoninus,  wrote 
a  Roman  History,  of  which  much  has  perished  :  Ptolemy  of 
Pelusium  in  Egypt,  the  geographer  and  astronomer,  whose 
system  of  the  world  prevailed,  till  it  was  superseded  by  more 
modern  discoveries: — Lucian  of  Samosata  in  Syria,  whose 
elegant  and  lively  Dialogues  will  be  read  as  long  as  Attic 
wit  shall  please,  and  lively  representations  of  the  follies  and 
eccentricities  of  human  nature  shall  interest.  In  the  reign  of 
Antoninus,  Pausaniasof  Ca3sareain  Cappadocia,  wrote  Travels 
through  Greece,  a  work  which,  to  the  charm  of  an  easy  narra- 
tive, adds  an  accurate  description  of  the  country,  as  he  then 
found  it,  and  therefore  must  be  deemed  highly  important  to 
the  study  of  antiquity,  and  the  history  of  the  arts.  From  Dion 
Cassius  of  Nice  in  Bithynia,  the  favourite  of  many  emperors, 
by  whom  he  was  raised  to  the  highest  offices  in  the  state,  we 
possess  the  remains  of  a  Roman  History,  composed  in  a  style 
which  the  severest  critic  may  approve,  but  not  with  a  mind 
less  influenced  by  prejudice  than  by  truth.  Herodian  wrote 
with  some  elegance,  principally  on  those  transactions  of  the 
Roman  state  with  which  he  had  himself  been  personally 
acquainted.2 

In  Constantinople,  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifth  century, 
Zosimus  compiled  a  History  of  the  emperors,  from  Augustus 
to  the  year  410.  The  work,  as  we  have  it,  is  incomplete; 
and  is  written  with  great  freedom,  with  much  asperity,  and 
with  striking  indications  of  an  undue  partiality.  From  the 
freedom  with  which  he  exposes  the  conduct  of  some  Christian 

1  See  the  Bib.  Grace,  iv.  •  Ibid. 


58  LITERARY  HISTORY  OP  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  14 

emperors,  an  attempt  was  early  made,  and  not  without 
success,  to  throw  suspicion  on  his  veracity.  But  the  style  is 
pure  and  perspicuous,  not  void  of  sweetness,  nor  wantonly 
rhetorical.1 

These  writers,  the  last  excepted,  spent  the  greater  part  of 
their  lives  in  Rome;  and  their  works  evince,  that  the  decline 
of  Grecian  literature  must  not,  in  its  descent,  be  compared 
with  that  of  the  western  world.  It  has  even  been  made  a 
question,  why  the  former  should  have  maintained  its  supe- 
riority, particularly  in  the  line  of  historical  composition. 
That  so  many  of  that  nation  should  have  written  on  the  affairs 
of  Rome,  can  occasion  no  surprise,  when  the  magnitude  of 
the  object  is  considered;  but  it  may  be  remarked,  that  none 
of  them  were  from  Greece,  properly  so  called. 

But  Longinus  was  from  Athens,  (at  least  he  passed  much 
of  his  life  in  that  city),  the  tutor  and  minister  of  Zenobia,  the 
queen  of  Palmyra.  Of  his  works,  which  are  said  to  have 
been  numerous,  the  Treatise  on  the  Sublime,  (with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few  fragments)  alone  remains;  but  this  has  immor- 
talized his  memory.  When  Palmyra  opened  her  gates  to  the 
victorious  Aurelian,  the  philosopher,  to  whom  the  resistance 
which  that  city  had  made  was  ascribed,  was  seized  and  exe- 
cuted. We  may  be  allowed  to  think  that,  amidst  the  palaces, 
temples,  and  porticos  of  that  celebrated  spot — the  ruins  of 
which,  scattered  over  an  extent  of  several  miles,  still  excite 
the  admiration  of  travellers — the  mind  of  Longinus  had 
learned  to  cherish  those  elevated  conceptions  which  he  so 
vividly  felt  and  so  energetically  expressed.  It  is,  however, 
by  some  thought  that  his  principal  works  were  completed 
before  he  visited  Palmyra.  He  died  about  the  year  270. 2 

It  was  philosophy,  however,  which,  at  this  time,  most 
engaged  the  Grecian  mind;  and  Alexandria  was  its  principal 
school.  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  in  describing  this  celebrated 
city,  speaks  of  the  temple  of  Serapis,  with  its  columns,  its 
breathing  statues,  and  its  other  ornaments,  which  the  Roman 

1  See  with  reference  to  Zozimus  the  Meynolre  de  M.  dc  St.  Croix,  p.  466, 
in  the  49th  vol.  of  the  Memoires  de  f  Academic  dcs  Inscriptions  ct  Belles 
Lettres,  and  two  other  dissertations  in  the  same  volume  by  the  same  author, 
the  one  on  the  taste  of  the  emperor  Hadrian  for  Philosophy,  the  other  com- 
prehending a  list  of  the  celebrated  men  of  literature  and  art  in  the  age  of 
Hadrian. 

2  Bib.  Greec.  iv.  Dissert.  Philolog.  Ed.  Toupe. 


TO  476.]  SCHOOLS  OF  ALEXANDRIA  AND  ATHENS.  59 

capital  could  alone  equal;  of  its  libraries,  collected  by  the 
Ptolomies,  which  contained  seven  hundred  thousand  volumes, 
part  of  which  had  been  consumed  in  the  war  with  Caesar;  of 
its  climate,  refreshed  by  genial  gales,  which  to  a  native  of 
Italy  might  seem  the  climate  of  another  world;  of  the  eminent 
men,  by  whose  labours  it  had  been  illustrated,  and  of  its  pre- 
sent literary  pursuits.1  Here  Ammonius2  taught,  who  was 
the  father  of  that  sect  which  was  distinguished  by  the  name 
of  the  New  Platonics,  and  which,  pretending  to  form  into  one 
compound  all  the  various  systems  of  philosophy  and  all  the 
modes  of  religion,  spread  with  amazing  rapidity  throughout 
the  greatest  part  of  the  Roman  world.  But  as  in  the  doctrines 
concerning  the  Deity,  the  human  soul,  the  things  invisible, 
they  gave  a  preference  to  the  opinions  of  Plato,  they  received 
the  appellation  of  Platonists.  Many  learned  Christians  were 
eager  to  enter  this  comprehensive  pale ;  and  particularly 
Alexandrian  doctors,  who,  with  the  profession  of  the  gospel, 
wished  to  retain  the  title,  the  dignity,  and  the  habit  of  philo- 
sophers. But,  certainly,  the  simplicity  of  the  Christian 
doctrine  could  ill  accord  with  an  heterogeneous  mass,  made 
up  of  all  the  follies  which  the  mind  of  man  had  conceived, 
which  the  genius  of  Ammonius  and  his  scholars  in  vain 
attempted  to  blend  into  one  consistent  whole.  Among  these 
scholars  the  most  eminent  was  Plotinus,  who  travelled  much, 
and  resided  long  in  Rome,  where  many  illustrious  men  became 
his  followers.  Of  this  number  was  Porphyry,  a  native  of 
Tyre,  and  a  dangerous  enemy  of  Christianity;  but  who  still 
further  diffused  the  doctrines  of  the  Ammonian  school, 
and  adorned  the  lessons  which  he  taught  with  the  blandish- 
ments of  a  polished  style.  He  had  studied  eloquence  under 
Longinus.3 

But  though  Alexandria  and  other  schools  had  become  so 
renowned,  it  must  not  be  imagined  that  those  of  Greece 
were  deserted.  The  proximity  to  Byzantium,  when  it  be- 
came the  seat  of  empire,  would  more  strongly  recommend 
them;  and  Athens,  we  know,  was  now  much  frequented. 
Ik-re,  about  the  year  350,  we  find  Julian,  afterwards  named 
the  apostate,  and  with  him  the  two  friends,  Gregory  of  Na- 
zianzus,  and  Basil  of  Ca3sarea,  the  first  of  whom  has  given  us 


1  Eer.  Gest.  1.  xxii.  c.  xvi.  2  Bib.  Graec.  iv.  c.  xxvi. 

3  Brucker,  Hist.  Phil.  ii.  sect.  4.  Dissert,  ut.  ante.    Bib.  Graec.  iv.  c.  xxvi. 


60  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

some  account  of  the  Athenian  schools,  and  a  minute  delinea- 
tion of  the  person  of  Julian.1  The  talents  which  these  lumi- 
naries of  the  church  possessed,  and  the  eloquence  which  they 
displayed,  do  honour  to  the  schools  of  Athens;  and  if  to 
these  we  join  two  other  Christian  orators,  Gregory  of  Nyssa, 
the  brother  of  Basil,  and  John  Chrysostom,  the  bishop  of 
Constantinople,  Grecian  eloquence  must  still  be  admitted  to 
have  maintained  a  high  degree  of  excellence.  Erasmus, 
though  he  speaks  much  in  praise  of  Chrysostom,  is  inclined 
to  give  the  palm  to  the  bishop  of  Cajsarea. 

Among  the  emperors  who  were  favourable  to  letters,  Con- 
stantius,  the  son  of  Constantine,  is  related  to  have  opened  a 
public  library  in  Constantinople,  which  was  afterwards  much 
augmented  by  Julian.  The  latter  erected  some  stately 
edifices  for  the  reception  of  books,  to  the  number  of  which  he 
sedulously  added,  and  which,  it  is  said,  were  gradually  accu- 
mulated to  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand;  while  Greek 
and  Latin  secretaries,  who  were  maintained  from  the  royal 
treasury,  were  constantly  employed  in  making  accurate  tran- 
scripts of  ancient  authors,  or  in  preparing  new  compositions. 
Other  cities  also  had  libraries,  particularly  Antioch ;  and 
many,  necessarily,  were  the  private  collections:  but  I  read, 
at  this  time,  of  no  public  library  in  Athens. 

To  this  view  much  more  might  be  added;  but  what  has 
been  said  may  suffice  to  show,  that  the  Grecian  tongue,  whilst 
it  was  so  generally  cultivated,  had  not  lost  its  primitive 
beauty;  and  that  works  had  not  ceased  to  be  published,  in 
which  taste,  elegance,  and  judgment  are  conspicuous;  while 
the  arts,  as  far  as  they  were  patronised,  continued  to  be 
indebted  to  Grecian  ingenuity.2 

1  Greg.  Naz.  op.  pass.     See  La  Bleterie's  Life  of  Julian.     We  may  also 
refer  the  reader  to  M.  Stuart  Boyd's  interesting  "  Select  Passages  of  the 
writings  of  St.  Chrysostom,  St.  Gregory  Nazianzen,  and  St.  Basil."  2nd  ed. 
London,  1810. 

2  See  Bib.  Groec.  passim,  also  Leitfaden,  etc.  von  Meusel. 


BOOK   II. 


A  VIEW  OF  THE  FALLEN  STATE  OF  LITERATURE  AND  THE 
ARTS,  FROM  THE  FALL  OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE,  IN 
476,  TO  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  REIGN  OK  CHARLEMAGNE, 
IN  774. 


Settlements  of  the  barbarous  nations — In  Italy — In  Spain — In  Gaul — In 
Africa — In  Germany — In  Britain — The  Huns — Reflections  on  the  cha- 
racter of  the  Goths — General  outline  of  the  times^State  of  learning  in 
I  tidy  during  the  Gothic  reign — Disastrous  state  of  Italy — Reign  of  the 
Lombards — State  of  learning — The  end  of  the  Lombard  government — 
French  writers — Spanish  writers — Germany — The  state  of  England — 
Bede — The  works  principally  read  in  the  schools. 

As  the  most  fatal  blow  to  the  declining  cause  of  literature 
and  the  polite  arts  was  given  by  the  settlement  of  the  various 
barbarous  tribes  in  the  kingdoms  of  Europe,  that  malignant 
influence  did  not  cease  to  operate,  till  time,  and  the  tissue  of 
events,  having  improved  the  state  of  society,  began  to  gene- 
rate new  desires,  and  excite  into  new  action  the  dormant 
powers  of  mind.  Thus,  in  the  moral  order  of  things,  a 
revolving  system  seems  to  prevail ;  and  change,  with  a 
greater  or  less  celerity,  succeeds  to  change,  as  man  ascends 
the  arduous  steep  of  excellence,  or  falls  back  into  degeneracy 
and  ignorance.  The  barbarous  tribes,  whom  I  have  men- 
tioned, were  our  progenitors:  it  may,  therefore,  be  proper, 
as  their  characters  and  habits  were  alike,  briefly  to  state,  what 
portions  of  Europe  they  occupied  at  this  period. 

They  came  from  the  provinces  of  Germany,  which  the 
Romans  had  not  subdued,  and  from  the  widely  extended 
regions  of  the  north  of  Europe  and  north-west  of  Asia,  which 
regions,  from  the  swarms  which  they  poured  out  upon  the 
south,  have  received  the  significant  appellation  of  the  "  Store- 
house of  nations."  Whence  this  exuberant  fecundity,  which 
has  hardly  been  equalled  in  the  more  genial  circumstances  of 


62  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

modern  times,  has  not  been  explained;  and  we  may  be 
allowed  to  think,  that  the  imagination  was  not  idle  in  calcu- 
lating the  population  of  a  ferocious  and  conquering  enemy. 
"  But  their  true  numbers,"  observes  a  just  reasoner,1  "were 
never  known.  Those  who  were  conquered  by  them  are  their 
historians,  and  shame  may  have  excited  them  to  say,  that 
they  were  overwhelmed  with  multitudes.  To  count  is  a 
modern  practice,  the  ancient  method  was  to  guess;  and  when 
numbers  are  guessed  they  are  always  magnified."  To  this 
enemy,  as  they  made  their  incursions  from  different  quarters 
or  at  different  times,  various  names  have  been  given;  though 
it  is  generally  agreed  that  they  were  children  of  the  same 
stock;  and  they  have  been  long  designated  by  the  common 
appellation  of  Goths.2 

I  have  related  that,  in  476,  the  fate  of  the  western  em- 
pire, dismembered  as  it  had  been,  year  after  year,  was  finally 
decided  by  Odoacer,  at  the  head  of  the  Heruli.  Under  this 
chieftain,  during  thirteen  years,  Italy  enjoyed  repose;  when 
the  Ostrogoth  Theodoric  invaded  the  country,  and,  after  an 
obstinate  resistance,  founded  the  Gothic  dynasty  in  493. 3 

The  remoter  provinces  of  the  empire  were  less  capable  of 
opposing  the  overwhelming  torrent.  Early  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, we  see  the  Vandals,  the  Alani,  and  the  Suevi,  dividing 
among  themselves  the  Spanish  territory,  while  the  Romans 
opposed  only  a  feeble  resistance,  and  the  country  experienced 
more  than  the  ordinary  waste  of  war.  But  what  amity  could 
subsist  amongst  these  barbarous  tribes,  who  were  all  intent  on 
extending  their  possessions?  they  quarrelled:  the  Visigoths, 
who  were  masters  of  southern  Gaul,  joined  the  Romans:  but 
about  the  year  468,  the  Romans  themselves  were  'completely 
driven  out  of  the  country:  and  the  Visigoth  empire  was 
founded  by  their  leader  Euric,  who  still  retained  the  Gaulish 
provinces,  of  which  Toulouse  was  the  capital.4 

The  northern  part  of  Gaul  had  been  long  invaded,  and 
long  partially  occupied  by  the  Franks.  Their  permanent 
establishment  is  fixed  as  early  as  the  year  351;  after  which 
time  they  continued  to  extend  themselves,  though  often 

1  Dr.  Johnson :  Journey  to  the  Western  Islands,  p.  22G. 

*  Jornandes  de  Rehus  Geticis,  e.  4,  &c. 

*  Ibid.  c.  57.     Hist.  Miscell.  1.  xv.     Procop.  1.  i.  c.  i,  inter  Rer.  Ital. 
Scriptores,  t.  i. 

4  See  the  same  writers. 


TO  774.]  SETTLEMENTS  OF  THE  BARBARIANS.  63 

vigorously  opposed;  and  before  the  middle  of  the  next  cen- 
tury they  began  to  number  their  kings  of  the  Merovingian 
race.  Of  this  race  was  the  celebrated  Clovis,  the  real 
founder  of  the  French  monarchy,  who,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  sixth  century,  established  the  seat  of  his  empire  at  Paris.1 

In  the  fifth  century,  which  was  everywhere  so  fatal  to  the 
Roman  power,  another  tribe,  named  Burgundians,  had  seized 
the  eastern  part  of  Gaul;  but  they  were  finally  reduced  by 
the  overbearing  power  of  the  Franks.2 

The  Vandals  were  now  masters  of  Africa.  About  the  year 
428,  under  the  conduct  of  the  ferocious  Genseric,  they  had 
voluntarily  relinquished  their  conquests  in  Spain,  and  landing 
in  Africa,  subdued  the  countiy  in  a  few  years.  The  Romans 
everywhere  trembled  at  the  name  of  Genseric,  and  history 
has  recorded  his  conquests,  his  depredations  on  all  the 
neighbouring  coasts,  and  his  pillage  of  Rome,  in  455.  He 
died  about  the  year  480,  leaving  the  kingdom,  which  he  had 
founded,  to  his  son  Huneric.3 

So  widely  extended  was  the  country  known  by  the  name 
of  Germany,  and  so  various  the  nations'  comprehended  under 
the  common  appellation  of  Germans,  that  it  is  not  easy  to 
convey  any  distinct  idea  of  the  revolutions  which  that  coun- 
try experienced.  Many  of  the  barbarous  tribes  of  which  I  have 
spoken  came  either  from  Germany,  or  certainly  through  its 
provinces;  and  as  the  Romans  were  compelled  to  retire,  new 
states  of  independent  nations  were  formed,  collected  from  the 
aboriginal  inhabitants,  or  from  such  strangers  as  had  chosen 
that  country  for  their  abode.  When  the  western  empire 
fell,  the  Germans  were  established  in  their  primitive  liberty; 
and  it  may  be  said  of  them,  that,  not  having  been  overrun 
and  extirpated  by  invaders,  the  stock  remained  pure,  and 
their  customs,  manners,  and  institutions,  in  a  great  measure, 
unchanged.4 

"  The  Romans  had  been  masters  of  Britain  more  than  four 
hundred  years,"  when,  early  in  the  same  inauspicious  century, 
the  misfortunes  of  which  we  have  so  often  deplored,  they 
voluntarily  withdrew  their  legions,  for  the  defence  of  the 
more  vital  parts  of  the  empire.  The  Britons  had  reluctantly 

1  See  the  nmhors  before  quoted,  also  Gregory  of  Tours,  Hist.  Franc. 
*  Ibid.  '  Procop.  Bel.  Valid.  1.  i.    , 

4  See  Caesar,  Tacitus,  &c. 


64     LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.    [A.D.  476 

submitted  their  necks  to  the  yoke,  but  usage  had  reconciled 
them  to  servitude;  they  had  adopted  the  manners  of  the 
conquerors1,  on  whom  they  were  habituated  to  rely  for  pro- 
tection against  the  inroads  of  the  northern  borderers.  It 
was  with  deep  regret  that  they  beheld  the  Roman  troops 
depart,  after  which,  during  thirty  years,  we  peruse2  the  la- 
mentable tale  of  their  sufferings,  and  their  degeneracy,  when, 
in  public  council,  it  was  agreed  to  invite  the  assistance  of  the 
Saxon  pirates.  The  Saxons  landed  about  the  year  450,  and 
the  progressive  history  of  their  successes,  and  of  the  brave 
but  unavailing  resistance  by  which  they  were  opposed,  is  too 
well  known  to  need  any  explanation. 

While  Europe  had  been  thus  wasted,  and  occupied  by  the 
various  nations  of  the  Gothic  family,  a  still  more  barbarous 
people,  from  the  regions  north  of  Mount  Caucasus,  were 
busied  in  the  same  work  of  devastation,  sometimes  making  war 
on  both  empires,  at  others  serving  in  their  armies;  uniting 
with  the  Goths  at  one  period,  and  pursuing  them  with  the 
most  hostile  vengeance  at  another.  The  primitive  parents,  as 
Jornandes  gravely  writes,  from  whom  the  Huns  derived  their 
origin,  were  devils  and  witches;  an  opinion  which  betrays  the 
formidable  impression  made  on  the  Gothic  mind.  Those, 
says  he,  whom  they  could  not  subdue  by  force  of  arms,  they 
put  to  flight  by  their  horrid  aspect.  Their  grim  visage,  de- 
formed by  scars,  in  which  no  eyes  were  visible,  seemed  like 
a  formless  lump  of  flesh.  Low  in  stature,  but  active  and 
muscular,  they  were  expert  horsemen,  and  skilled  in  the  use 
of  the  bow.  Their  whole,  deportment  breathed  defiance, 
while  their  manners  were  savage,  and  their  way  of  life 
beastly.  After  various  exploits,  and  battles  won  and  lost 
in  almost  every  province  of  the  west,  and  in  many  parts  of 
the  east,  particularly  under  their  great  leader  Attila,  these 
formidable  savages  had,  before  the  end  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, the  possession  of  extensive  territories  beyond  the 
Danube.3 

It  may  with  truth  be  said,  that  at  the  opening  of  the  sixth 
century,  no  country  of  the  former  western  empire  remained 
unoccupied  by  some  barbarous  tribe.  The  ancient  inhabi- 
tants, and  the  Romans  who  had  settled  amongst  them,  were 

1  Tacit,  iu  Vit.  Agric.  -  Gildns,  Excid.  Biitan. 

3  See  Jornondes,  de  Keb.  Get.  Procop.  de  Bel.  Goth.  Hist.  Misc. 


TO  774.]  CHARACTER    OF    THE    BARBARIANS.  65 

exterminated  in  a  long  succession  of  ravage  and  war;  they 
were  compelled  to  seek  for  shelter  in  some  other  soil,  or, 
mixed  in  the  invading  mass,  were  utterly  lost  to  observation. 
What  we  know  to  have  happened  in  this  country  may  assist 
us  in  forming  some  notion  of  the  fate  of  other  regions. 
Those  institutions,  Jaws,  manners,  arts,  and  sciences,  which 
it  is  the  work  of  ages  even  imperfectly  to  establish,  disap- 
peared. When  the  Romans  conquered  any  people,  they  intro- 
duced amongst  them  the  arts,  the  improvements,  the  comforts  of 
polished  life;  and,  in  return  for  the  loss  of  independence, 
bestowed  the  capacities  of  more  rational  existence.  These 
capacities,  and  more  than  these,  the  actual  acquirements  of 
civilized  society,  the  Goths  and  Huns  dissipated  into  air; 
and  contemning  what  they  had  no  capacity  to  enjoy,  they 
reproduced  the  reign  of  barbarism. 

But  were  these  people  really  so  barbarous  as  the  writers 
of  Roman  history  have  been  studious  to  represent  them?  On 
this  subject,  Tacitus,  in  describing  the  German  nations,  or 
more  recent  authors,1  who  witnessed  the  overwhelming  force 
of  the  Gothic  invaders,  must  be  read  with  caution.  Their 
language  was  not  at  all  or  only  imperfectly  understood;  and 
there  would  be  a  stronger  propensity  hideously  to  exaggerate 
rather  than  faithfully  to  depict  what  was  necessarily  viewed 
through  an  opaque  and  troubled  medium,  when  the  country 
had  been  laid  waste;  property  forcibly  alienated;  friends 
murdered  or  exiled;  the  endearing  monuments  of  other  days 
overturned;  and  all  that  was  venerable  derided  or  deformed. 
Though  in  all  this  few  excesses  might  be  committed,  which 
are  not  the  usual  attendants  on  invasion  and  conquest — the 
sufferers  were  not  likely  to  be  sparing  of  their  complaints ; 
and  of  their  invectives  where  they  could  be  vented  with  im- 
punity. 

Jornandes,  a  Gothic  monk,  by  some  styled  bishop  of  Ra- 
venna,2 who  lived  in  the  sixth  century,  is  more  partial,  as 
might  be  expected,  and  perhaps  more  exact  in  describing  the 
character  of  a  people  from  whom  he  was  himself  descended. 
He  says  that  they  surpassed  the  Romans  in  figure  and  in 

1  Hist.  August.  Script.  Ammian.  Marcell.  ;><».«••*. 

2  This,  on   weighty  reasons   is  controverted  by  .Muratori,  Praef.  ad  Jor- 
nanil.  i.   int.  Her.  Itol.  Scrip. — The  work  of  Jonmudes  is  an  abridgment 
of  the  History  of  the  celebrated   (.'usHiodorus,  oil  the  same  subject,  which 
bus  been  lost. — See  Fabricius,  Bib.  Lnt.  ii. 

F 


66  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  ACES.         [A.D.  476 

bravery;  they  had  among  them,  he  adds,  even  at  the  time  of 
their  early  migrations,  men  of  extraordinary  erudition,  who 
were  their  masters  in  the  schools  of  wisdom;  hence  the  Goths 
were  esteemed  more  learned  than  other  barbarous  nations,  and 
almost  comparable  with  the  Greeks.  He  proceeds  to  de- 
scribe their  devotion  to  the  god  Mars,  whom  they  propitiated 
by  human  victims,  their  further  advances  in  civilisation,  and 
their  skill  in  music.  He  observes,  that  about  the  time  of 
Sylla  and  of  Julius  Ceesar.  the  Goths,  whom  the  latter  could 
not  conquer,  were  wholly  guided  by  the  advice  of  the  sage 
Diceneus.  Sensible  of  their  docile  disposition,  and  their 
natural  talents,  there  was  no  part  of  philosophy  which  he 
withheld  from  them.  He  instructed  them  in  ethics,  in  order 
to  civilize  their  manners;  in  the  laws  of  nature,  to  show 
them  that  these  laws  were  to  be  observed;  and  he  taught 
them  logic,  which  rendered  them  more  expert  than  other 
nations  in  the  art  of  reasoning.  He  proposed  to  their  con- 
templation the  theory  of  the  twelve  zodiacal  signs,  the  revo- 
lutions of  the  planets,  and  the  whole  science  of  astronomy, 
which  shows  the  increase  and  wane  of  the  moon,  and  how 
much  the  fiery  globe  of  the  sun  exceeds  the  earth  in  magni- 
tude. With  what  pleasure  then,  says  he,  when  the  repose 
of  a  few  days  allowed  a  respite  from  arms,  did  these  brave 
men  turn  their  thoughts  to  philosophy.  You  might  observe 
one  scrutinizing  the  face  of  the  heavens;  another  exploring 
the  nature  of  herbs  and  fruits;  a  third  calculating  the  uses 
of  the  moon;  and  a  fourth  pursuing  the  labours  of  the  sun 
in  its  diurnal  course.  By  these  and  many  other  lessons,  the 
fame  of  Diceneus  had  become  so  great,  that  all  orders  of  men, 
and  even  the  chiefs,  obeyed  him.  He  then  selected  the  most 
worthy,  whom  he  instructed  in  theology,  and  taught  to  wor- 
ship the  gods.1  Comosicus,  his  successor,  and  not  his  inferior 
in  wisdom,  was  held  in  almost  equal  veneration.  He  became 
the  king  and  high  priest  of  the  Gothic  people,  whom  he  ruled 
injustice. 

Thus  writes  the  Gothic  Jornandes;  but  in  describing  the 
Huns,  who  were  the  enemies  of  his  nation,  he  makes  use  of 
the  darkest  colours,  and  has  recourse  to  fable  in  order  to 
deepen  the  shades.2  We  may  then  naturally  suppose  that 
both  the  pictures  are  deficient  in  historical  impartiality;  and 

1  De  rebus  Get.  xi.  2  Ibid.  rxiv. 


TO  774.]  THE  PRINCESS  AMALASUNTHA.  67 

if  some  deduction  may  justly  be  made  from  his  praise,  an  un- 
reserved credit  should  not  be  given  to  his  abuse.  But  it  is 
evident,  that  from  tlieir  habits  of  vagrant  and  predatory  life, 
these  nations  were  composed  of  barbarians,  though  some 
tribes  might  have  received  a  tincture  of  such  elementary 
knowledge  as  their  historian  has  described.  Even  after  a 
residence  of  some  years  in  Italy,  we  find  the  Goths  charac- 
terized by  a  sort  of  innate  distaste  for  literature. 

If  the  Goths  were  so  enlightened  as  is  asserted,  particu- 
larly in  what  regarded  religion,  their  maxims  widely  differed 
from  those  of  the  Gauls  and  Germans.  Among  the  former, 
over  whom  the  Druids  presided,  it  is  known  with  what 
jealous  caution  all  sacred  knowledge  was  withheld.  Nothing 
even  of  history  or  of  philosophy  was  committed  to  writing, 
but  what  it  might,  on  solemn  occasions,  be  proper  to  commu- 
nicate to  the  people,  was  recorded  in  songs  or  ballads,  which 
were  preserved  by  memory.  But  they  seem  to  have  all 
agreed,  that  to  perform  deeds  of  valour  was  more  glorious 
than  to  speak  or  write  elegantly,  and  that  mental  application, 
as  tending  to  withdraw  the  individual  from  the  use  of  arms, 
was  beneath  the  dignity  of  manhood.  The  Gauls,  however, 
as  they  have  been  represented  to  us  by  Caesar,1  and  the 
Germans,  as  they  have  been  depicted  by  Tacitus,  appear  far 
superior  to  the  Goths  in  their  maxims  and  institutions,  and 
we  may  lament  that  the  enervating  effects  of  Roman  inter- 
course should  have  prepared  them  for  the  yoke  of  servi- 
tude. 

After  the  extinction  of  the  literary  spirit,  and  the  cessation 
of  intellectual  culture  throughout  the  west  of  Europe,  the 
barbarous  conquerors  might  with  pleasure  contemplate  a 
state  of  society,  in  few  respects  raised  above  the  level  of 
their  own.  The  few  instances  in  which  they  might  discern 
any  traces  of  mental  superiority  were  not  such  as  were  calcu- 
lated to  create  the  feeling  of  envy  or  the  sense  of  inferiority, 
particularly  when  they  had  obtained  such  a  signal  triumph  over 
those  who  affected  a  superiority  in  intellectual  attainments. 
Amalasuntha,  the  daughter  of  the  Gothic  king,  Theodoric, 
was  left  guardian  to  her  son  Athalarir,  the  heir  to  the  Italian 
throne.  She  was  herself  a  woman  of  uncommon  endowments, 
compared  with  the  standard  of  that  age;  for  she  had  listened 

1  <.'«?«.  Comment,  vi.  Tacit,  de  mor.  Geiin. 

F2 


68  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

to  the  political  lectures  of  Cassiodorus,  and  imbibed  wisdom 
from  the  lips  of  Boetius.  It  was  her  anxious  wish  that  her 
son  should  be  educated  after  the  Roman  manner,  and  frequent 
the  public  schools.  At  the  same  time,  she  selected  for  his 
tutors  three  individuals  from  among  the  Goths,  of  mature 
age,  and  of  distinguished  celebrity  for  their  wisdom  and  mo- 
deration. This  measure  did  not  please;  and  one  day  when 
she  had  punished  him,  and  he  was  seen  in  tears,  the  Gothic 
lords  were  filled  with  indignation,  and  waited  on  the  queen. 
"  This  method  of  education,  madam,"  said  they,  "  is  neither 
honourable  to  our  prince,  nor  advantageous  to  us.  Courage 
is  not  promoted  by  letters,  and  the  lessons  of  age  often  gene- 
rate cowardice  and  pusillanimity.  Athalaric  must  hereafter 
show  his  prowess  in  the  field,  and  aspire  to  military  renown. 
Dismiss  then  these  pedants,  and  let  the  youth  be  trained  to 
arms.  Theodoric  would  not  permit  our  Gothic  children  to 
frequent  the  schools,  as  he  remarked  that  those  who  had  been 
taught  to  tremble  at  the  rod,  would  never  look  without  shud- 
dering on  the  spear.  And  he,  madam,  conquered  provinces, 
and  acquired  a  crown,  though  not  a  whisper  of  learning  had 
approached  his  ears.  Reflect  on  this;  and  let  your  son  have 
companions  of  his  own  age,  from  whose  conversation  he  may 
imbibe  generous  sentiments,  and  learn  to  govern  agreeably  to 
the  institutions  of  the  Goths."1  Amalasuntha  reluctantly 
assented;  and  the  youth,  after  a  few  years,  was  worn  out  by 
debauchery  and  carried  to  the  grave. 

The  prospect  which  now  lies  before  us  is  dreary  to  behold. 
It  is  spread  over  an  immeasurable  extent,  not  altogether  desti- 
tute of  fertility,  but  without  cultivation.  The  objects  capable 
of  interesting  the  attention  will  be  but  few.  But  may  we  not, 
with  a  sort  of  melancholy  pleasure,  dwell  on  these  few  as  we  do- 
on  the  fragments  of  some  dilapidated  monument?  The  differ- 
ence is  palpable.  These  fragments  delight,  because  they  still 
show  the  exquisite  taste  of  the  artist,  and  serve  to  carry  our 
contemplations  back  to  the  days  of  other  years,  when  subli- 
mity, combined  with  beauty,  attested  the  perfection  of  human 
skill.  Other  associations  enter  into  the  general  conception. 
But  where  all  is  rude  and  tasteless,  however  entire  the  object 
may  be,  no  gratification  is  experienced. 

1  Procopius  de  Bel.  Goth.  ii.  He  was  a  Greek,  lived  in  the  court  of 
Justinian,  and  was  a  witness  to  many  of  the  events  which  he  related. 


TO  774.]       LEARNING  IN  ITALY  UNDER  THE  GOTHS.  69 

A  late  writer  of  great  classical  taste,  speaking  of  this  period, 
calls  it  "the  age  of  monkery  and  legends;  of  Leonine  verses, 
(that  is  of  bad  Latin  put  into  rhime;)  of  projects  to  divide 
truth  by  plough-shares;  of  crusades  to  conquer  infidels  and 
extirpate  heretics;  of  princes  deposed,  not  as  Craesus  was  by 
Cyrus,  but  by  one  Avho  had  no  armies,  and  who  did  not  even 
wear  a  sword."1  Yet  he  allows  that  some  sparks  of  intellect 
were  at  all  times  visible;  and  he  proceeds  beautifully  to 
observe,  that  the  few  who  were  enlightened,  when  arts  and 
sciences  were  thus  obscured,  may  be  said  to  have  maintained 
the  continuity  of  knowledge;  "  to  have  been  (if  I  may  use  the 
expression)  like  the  twilight  of  a  summer's  night;  that  auspi- 
cious gleam  between  the  setting  and  the  rising  sun,  which, 
though  it  cannot  retain  the  lustre  of  the  day,  helps  at  least  to 
save  us  from  the  totality  of  darkness."  The  observations  are 
rather  applicable  to  times  not  quite  so  remote. 

When  Theodoric,  about  the  year  493,  was  firmly  seated  on 
the  throne,  we  are  told  that  Italy  once  more  enjoyed  the 
return  of  happy  days;  and  the  happier,  doubtless,  because  by 
no  means  the  object  of  previous  expectation.  Unlike  other 
conquerors,  Theodoric,  sensible  of  the  superiority  which 
marked  the  manners  of  the  people  whom  he,  had  subdued, 
left  them  in  possession  of  their  laws,  which  he  commanded  to 
be  inviolably  observed;  and  he  retained  the  same  form  of 
government,  the  same  distribution  of  provinces,  the  same 
magistrates  and  dignities.  By  this  policy  he  hoped  to  recon- 
cile even  the  Romans  to  his  sovereignty;  and  to  convince 
them,  that,  though  a  barbarian,  he  was  more  worthy  of  a 
sceptre  than  many  of  their  nation  by  whom  the  throne  of 
Cassar  had  been  occupied.  The  mind  of  Theodoric,  it  is 
certain,  cannot  justly  be  designated  by  the  epithet  barbarous. 
He  had,  indeed,  received  a  military  education  amongst  his 
countrymen;  but  he  had  visited,  at  Byzantium,  and  had 
received  signal  favours  from  the  imperial  court.  And,  what 
is  a  striking  proof  of  a  discriminating  mind,  he  chose  for  his 
principal  adviser  a  man  of  great  learning  and  integrity,  the 
celebrated  Cassiodorus.  It  seems,  however,  to  be  generally 
admitted,  unless  by  those  who  perpetually  merge  truth  in 
flattery,  that  he  was  extremely  illiterate,  and  could  never 
accomplish  the  arduous  task  of  writing  his  own  name.  The 

1  Philolog.  Inquiries,  iii.  1. 


70     LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.    [A.D.  476 

reader  has  just  heard  the  barbarous  speech  of  the  Gothic 
nobles  to  Amalasuntha.  But  the  greater  praise  is  due  to 
Theodoric  if,  while,  from  the  defect  of  education,  he  was  him  - 
self  void  of  learning,  he  could  value  it  in  others,  and,  through 
a  reign  of  thirty-three  years,  be  the  encourager  and  the 
patron  of  letters.  As  the  late  princes  had  made  Ravenna 
the  seat  of  empire,  Theodoric  made  it  his  usual  place  of 
residence.1 

In  speaking  of  the  character  of  the  Gothic  people,  I  might 
have  observed,  that  the  superstitious  reverence  which  they 
had  always  shown  to  the  ministers  of  religion  contributed 
much,  on  their  first  invasion,  to  the  well-being  of  the  con- 
quered countries,  and  more  after  their  conversion  to  the 
Christian  faith.  They  transferred  this  hallowed  feeling  to 
the  new  sacerdotal  order;  and,  under  its  influence,  spared 
their  persons,  with  the  edifices  and  other  objects  with  which 
they  were  associated.  Learning  and  its  repositories  thus 
sometimes  experienced  protection,  while  palaces  and  castles, 
with  their  inhabitants,  were  wrapt  in  flames.  This  deference 
for  the  priesthood  was  inherited  by  Theodoric.  It  was  usual 
with  him,  early  in  the  morning,  to  frequent  a  religious  assem- 
bly of  bishops,  and  other  ministers,  with  whom  he  familiarly 
conversed;  though  it  seemed,  says  the  historian,2  to  have 
been  the  effect  of  a  habit  long  contracted,  rather  than  dictated 
by  any  motive  of  rational  respect. 

Cassiodorus,  to  whose  counsels  Italy  was  indebted  for  her 
repose,  and  Theodoric  for  his  fame,  was  a  native  of  Calabria. 
He  had  experienced  the  patronage  of  Odoacer;  but,  under 
Theodoric,  he  had  been  raised  to  the  highest  offices  of  the 
state,  which  he  continued  to  administer  under  his  successors, 
till  the  commencement  of  the  Gothic  war.  He  then  retired 
from  all  public  employments;  and  in  the  solitude  of  a  mo- 
nastery he  closed  a  long  life  of  usefulness  and  virtue. 

Of  his  various  works3  the  principal  is  a  collection  of  Letters, 
written  whilst  he  was  minister  to  the  Gothic  kings;  and  is, 
therefore,  highly  interesting  from  the  historical  matter  which 
it  contains.  He  was  also  the  author  of  a  Gothic  History, 

1  See  on  the  reign  and  character  of  "the  Gothic  king,  the  many  writers 
quoted  by  Mnratori  in  his  Annali  d'ltalia,  iii. ;  also  Eer.  Ital.  Scrip.  2)as. 
*  De  Theod.  ap.  Jornand.  181. 
3  See  a  list  of  them  in  Cave  and  in  Fabricius,  Bib.  Lat.  ii. 


TO  774.]  BOETIUS.  71 

which  is  lost,  except  in  its  probable  abridgment  of  Jornandes.1 
His  style  is  characterized  in  a  few  words,  when  it  is  said  to 
possess  a  harmony,  a  construction,  and  a  phraseology,  so 
peculiarly  his  own,  as  to  be  best  defined  by  the  expression — 
barbarous  elegance?  His  digressions  are  numerous,  and  his 
display  of  learning  such,  as  if  it  had  been  his  wish  to  shame 
the.  gross  ignorance  of  his  contemporaries,  or  to  make  the 
faded  honours  of  literature  revive.  The  moment  of  his  retire- 
ment, it  has  been  said,  was  the  epoch  of  their  expiration.  In 
his  retirement,  however,  Cassiodorus  continued  to  write  on 
subjects  which  were  adapted  to  his  new  calling.  He  employed 
his  monks  in  the  meritorious  labours  of  transcription;  he  was 
instrumental  in  procuring  translations  of  Greek  authors;  and 
he  enriched  his  monastery  with  a  copious  collection  of  books. 
This  monastery,  which  he  had  himself  founded,  was  situated 
near  Squillaci,  in  Calabria;  and  if  he  died  in  575,  his  age 
wanted  but  little  of  a  hundred  years.  The  name  of  the  gram- 
marian and  philologist  Priscian  may  be  mentioned  here, 
though  he  taught  at  Constantinople,  and  seems  not  to  have 
been  a  Latin  by  birth.  Cassiodorus  speaks  of  him  as  his 
equal  in  age.  His  various  works  on  his  own  art  gained  him  a 
high  reputation,  and  for  many  centuries  they  were  the  guides 
to  the  Latin  tongue  in  the  schools  of  Europe.  The  grammar 
or  elementary  introduction  for  beginners,  was  called  his  Alpha- 
bet, and  that  for  the  more  advanced  acquired  the  appellation 
of  the  Great  Priscian? 

Contemporary  likewise  with  Cassiodorus,  and  equally  fa- 
voured by  Theodoric,  was  the  philosopher  Boetius,  who  had 
studied  at  Athens.  Boetius  wari  the  object  of  extravagant  en- 
comiums. In  eloquence  he  was  said  to  have  united  the  graces 
of  Demosthenes  and  of  Cicero;  to  have  combined  what  was 
most  valuable  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  authors;  and,  in  at- 
tempting to  imitate,  to  have  surpassed  the  ablest  models  of 
antiquity.4  This  exaggerated  commendation,  if  it  were  sin- 
cere, proved  how  little  men  were  then  able  to  appreciate  lite- 
rary merit.  Many  of  his  works  were  translations  from  the 

1  See  the  Prsef.  by  Murutori,  i. 

'-'  Tiruhoschi,  Storia  della  Letterat.  iii.  17. 

3  See,  on  the   Latin  Grammarians,  a  curious  article  in  Fabricius,  Bib. 
Lat.  ii.  extracted  from  the  work  of  the  learned  Putschius  of  Antwerp. 

4  Ennodius,  bishop  of  Pavia,  his  contemporary,  Ep.  viii.  1. 


72  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

Greek;  and  for  these  he  was  liberally  praised  by  Cassiodorus.1 
Addicted  to  the  sect  of  the  Peripatetics,  and  an  admirer  of 
Aristotle,  but  not  to  the  exclusion  of  Plato,  he  brought  the 
writings  of  the  Stagyrite  into  vogue,  and  may  be  regarded  as 
the  founder  of  that  scholastic  lore  which  afterwards  prevailed. 
But  the  work  of  Boetius,  which  alone  is  now  read ;  which  has 
been  translated  into  all  languages;  and  which  has  been  gene- 
rally admired  for  the  philosophical  amenity,  expressive  senti- 
ments, and  pure  morality  it  contains,  is  the  Consolation  of 
Philosophy.  It  is  written  in  prose,  which  is  not  void  of  ele- 
gance; interspersed  with  verses  of  considerable  beauty.2  It 
was  composed  during  his  imprisonment  at  Pavia,  where  he 
suffered  death  on  a  charge  of  which  no  proof  was  produced. 
In  the  following  year,  525,  his  father-in-law,  a  man  also  of  ex- 
traordinary parts  and  learning,  the  senator  Symmachus,  was 
executed,3  as  participating  in  the  supposed  treason  of  his 
son. 

When  we  consider  the  noble  descent  of  these  men,  their 
talents,  their  endowments,  their  lives  embellished  by  the  vir- 
tues they  had  practised,  the  dignities  they  had  possessed,  and 
the  admiration  which  they  seemed  to  excite,  we  might  suppose 
that  their  example  would  have  kindled  the  flame  of  literary 
emulation.  But  intellectual  torpor  was  too  widely  diffused; 
nor  let  it  be  forgotten  who,  at  the  time,  were  the  masters  of 
the  country,  and  what  the  character  of  their  minds,  though 
Theodoric  and  some  others,  from  motives  of  policy,  might 
occasionally  patronize  the  arts.  "  He  allowed  not  our  chil- 
dren," candidly  observed  the  Gothic  lords,  "  to  frequent  the 
schools,"  and  they  assigned  this  reason,  that  the  fear  of  the 
ferula  generated  cowardice. 

Another  writer,  Ennodius,  bishop  of  Pavia,  flourished  at 
the  same  time.  Italy  and  France  have  contended  for  the 
honour  of  his  birth.  When,  in  pursuing  another  subject,  some 
years  ago,  I  read  a  work  of  Ennodius,  my  observation  on  it 
was,  that  he  possessed  some  strength  of  imagination,  but  no 
powers  of  reasoning,  no  clearness  of  ideas,  and  no  elegance 
of  language.  A  further  perusal  of  his  works,4  which  are  com- 

1  Variar.  i.  ep.  45- 

2  Quse  libuit  ludere  in  poesi,  divina  sane  sunt :  nihil  illis   cultius,  nilril 
gravius.     Scaliger,  vi.  Poet. — See  Bib.  Lat.  ii. 

3  Procop.  de  Bello  Goth,  i.  1.  Anon.  Vales,  ad  calum.  Amm.  Marcel.  ' 

4  In  Bibl.  Patrum,  vi 


TO  774.]  ENNODIUS.  73 

posed  of  Letters,  Miscellanies,  Declamations,  and  Poems,  and 
from  which  I  now  rise  with  weariness,  has  only  served  to 
corroborate  the  opinion  which  I  had  previously  formed.  He 
ranks  with  the  orators  and  first  scholars  of  the  age;  but  the 
term  rhetorician  would  best  define  his  character.  Amongst 
his  miscellanies  is  a  Panegyric,  which  was  spoken  before 
Theodoric;  it  is  fulsome  and  declamatory.  The  military  ex- 
ploits, the  virtues,  the  literary  taste,  and  the  personal  beauty 
of  the  king,  are  gorgeously  displayed.  "  The  snow  on  his 
cheeks,"  he  says,  "  is  in  harmony  with  their  rosy  blush,  and 
his  eyes  beam  with  the  serenity  of  a  perpetual  spring."  In  his 
Letters  is  little  that  is  interesting;  and  the  Declamations,  in 
imitation  of  those  falsely  ascribed  to  Quintilian,  are  no  more 
than  school  exercises.  Ennodius,  who  seems  to  have  written 
most  when  he  was  young,  was  not  without  talents.  His  per- 
ceptions were  lively,  but  his  pedantry  and  affectation  are  in- 
tolerable, and  the  general  construction  of  his  sentences  is  so 
perplexed  as  to  baffle  comprehension.  In  the  poetical  depart- 
ment, in  which  he  wrote  hymns,  epigrams,  and  other  pieces, 
he  certainly  excelled  most;  and  it  was  his  wish,  it  seems,  to  be 
thought  a  poet,  when  the  subjects  before  him  would  hardly 
bear  even  the  ordinary  ornaments  of  prose.  Ennodius  was 
admired  by  his  contemporaries;  and  in  a  Roman  synod,  whilst 
he  was  in  deacon's  orders,  he  delivered  a  discourse  in  defence 
of  pope  Symmachus,  who  had  been  charged  with  crimes;  and 
so  charmed  were  the  fathers  with  his  reasoning  and  his  elo- 
quence, that  they  directed  the  discourse  to  be  entered  into 
the  acts  of  the  council,  where  it  may  now  be  read.1  Enno- 
dius was  dead  before  Boetius  was  immured  in  the  prisons  of 
Pavia. 

If  any  reliance  might  be  placed  upon  the  praises  of  such 
judges,  it  would  be  thought,  from  the  Epistles  of  Ennodius, 
that  the  Augustan  age  was  returned,  and  that  eloquence  had 
its  Ciceros,  and  poetry  its  Virgils.  The  more  temperate  Cas- 
siodorus,  indeed,  sometimes  expresses  the  feeling;  but  where 
specimens  are  extant,  we  have  means  of  ascertaining  the  truth 
of  eulogy. 

Ennodius  wrote  the  Life  of  Epiphanius,  who  was  his  pre- 
decessor in  the  see  of  Pavia;  and  some  other  lives,  and  a  few 
chronicles,  the  compositions  of  the  time.  The  work  of  Jor- 

1  Cone.  Gen.  iii. 


74  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

nandes,  though  an  abridgment,  alone  deserves  notice.  As  the 
production  of  a  Goth,  its  style  and  matter  may  entitle  it  to 
some  praise  :  but,  considered  as  the  work  of  Cassiodorus,  it 
would  add  little  to  his  fame.1 

Let  me  add,  what  is  an  additional  tribute  to  the  fame  of 
this  great  statesman,  that  he  was  equally  desirous  that  his 
master,  who,  under  the  influence  of  his  counsels,  had  pro- 
moted the  cause  of  letters,  should  be  the  patron  of  the  arts. 
The  care  of  Theodoric  was  first  extended  to  the  preservation 
of  the  buildings  and  other  monuments  in  Rome  and  in  the  pro- 
vinces. Proper  officers  were  appointed  for  this  purpose;  who 
were  afterwards  to  attend  to  the  construction  of  new  fabrics, 
or  to  the  reparation  of  such  as  had  fallen  to  decay. 

But  was  that  which  has  acquired  the  name  of  Gothic  archi- 
tecture now  introduced?  Here  I  must  beg  leave  to  refer  the 
reader  to  the  many  authors  who  have  discussed  the  subject, 
observing  only,  that — as  the  principals  of  just  taste,  by  de- 
parting from  the  models  of  antiquity,  had  been  long  waning 
into  oblivion  or  neglect — a  foundation  was  laid,  which  was  by 
no  means  inauspicious  to  the  commencement  of  what  is  called 
the  Gothic  taste.  The  style  of  writing  which  was  then  prac- 
tised, the  intricacy  of  combination,  the  minute  embellishments 
which  were  so  much  prized,  and  the  forced  conceits  which 
were  so  generally  admired  in  the  compositions  of  the  bishop 
of  Pa  via  and  most  of  his  contemporaries,  might  naturally  tend 
to  generate  a  similar  criterion  of  excellence  in  the  operations 
of  architectural  art.  If  the  simple  models  of  antiquity  could 
no  longer  please  in  literature,  it  was  less  likely  that  they  would 
be  acceptable  to  artificers  in  wood  and  stone. 

It  has  been  mentioned  that,  after  the  death  of  Theodoric  in 
526,  his  daughter  Amalasuntha,  as  guardian  to  her  son  Atha- 
laric,  assumed  the  reins  of  government.  Some  explanation 
has  been  given  of  her  views.  Whilst  she  continued  in  power, 
Italy  was  flattered  with  the  prospect  of  an  increasing  happi- 
ness: and  as  Cassiodorus  was  still  at  the  helm,  literature  had 
reason  to  rejoice.  But  the  young  prince  experienced  a  pre- 
mature death;  when  the  queen  raised  her  cousin  Theodotus, 
a  man  of  science  and  a  disciple  of  Plato,  to  a  participation  in 
the  throne.  The  philosopher  was  void  of  gratitude  as  well  as 

1  See  Bib.  Lat.  ii. 


TO  774.1  TOTILA.  75 

f 

military  experience  :  Amalasuntha  was  exiled  ;  and,  by  his 
orders,  or  with  his  consent,  was  put  to  death.1 

To  revenge,  as  he  pretended,  the  death  of  Amalasuntha,  or 
rather  to  recover  Italy  from  the  hands  of  the  Goths,  the  Gre- 
cian emperor  Justinian  directed  his  general  to  turn  his  arms 
against  Theodotus.  This  general  was  the  celebrated  Belisa- 
rius,  who  had  just  conquered  the  Vandals,  and  re-annexed 
Africa  to  the  imperial  throne.  He  first  subdued  Sicily,  which 
was  then  possessed  by  the  Goths,  and  landed  in  Italy  in  536. 
Thus  commenced  the  Gothic  war,2  which  was  waged  with  de- 
solating fury,  and  lasted  seventeen  years.  It  is  said,  Italy 
did  not,  for  several  centuries,  cease  to  feel  its  calamitous 
effects. 

Theodotus  soon  fell,  and  Vitiges  taking  the  command,  boldly 
made  a  vigorous  stand  against  the  imperial  general.  Rome 
was  in  the  hands  of  Belisarius;  but  it  was  soon  surrounded 
by  a  powerful  army  of  Goths,  and  reduced  to  extreme  dis- 
tress. But  on  this  occasion  the  fortune  of  Belisarius  pre- 
vailed; and  the  siege  was  raised.  The  havoc  of  war  was  now 
diffused  over  the  face  of  the  country,  and  few  cities  were 
exempted  from  its  rage.  In  540,  Vitiges,  being  taken  in  Ra- 
venna, was  conveyed  to  Constantinople,  whither  he  was  ac- 
companied by  Belisarius,  who  had  been  recalled  under  the 
suspicion  of  aspiring  to  the  sovereignty  of  Italy.  Within  a 
few  months,  two  other  kings  accepted  and  lost  the  precarious 
sceptre,  when  Totila,  more  worthy  to  command,  was  called  to 
the  dangerous  pre-eminence. 

Fortune  appeared  to  favour  the  enterprising  valour  of  the 
new  sovereign,  who  recaptured  cities,  defeated  armies,  and 
destroyed  fleets.  But  Belisarius  returned  while  Totila,  who 
had  in  vain  entreated  the  Romans  to  renew  their  allegiance, 
was  preparing  to  surround  their  city.  He  actually  accom- 
plished the  blockade,  which  he  continued  with  so  much 
rigour,  that  a  dreadful  famine  soon  began  to  rage  within  the 
walls;  and  when  all  attempts  to  relieve  the  city  had  proved 
unsuccessful,  the  Goths  were  treacherously  admitted  within 
the  gates.  The  historian  tells  us  that  little  blood  was  shed; 
but  the  most  unbounded  licence  of  plunder  was  permitted  to 
the  soldiers,  and  everything  valuable  became  their  prey. 

1  Procop.  de  Bel.  Goth.  i.  iii.  iv. 

*  See  Procopius,  Jornandes,  and  the  Historia  Miscel. 


76  LITERARY  HISTORY  OP  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

Even  Rome  herself,  upon  which  the  epithet  eternal  had  been 
so  presumptuously  bestowed,  seemed  fast  approaching  to  her 
final  doom,  with  her  palaces,  her  temples,  her  theatres,  and 
all  her  gorgeous  monuments.  When  Totila  could  obtain  no 
favourable  answer  from  the  Byzantine  court,  to  which  he  had 
respectfully  applied,  he  resolved  to  wreak  his  vengeance 
where  it  would  be  most  signally  felt.  He  threw  down  a 
third  part  of  the  wall;  and  the  fire  was  ready  to  consume  the 
most  stately  buildings,  when  he  received  letters  from  Beli- 
sarius.  He  earnestly  besought  the  Gothic  sovereign  to  spare 
the  city,  which  the  labour  of  ages  had  contributed  to  adorn; 
and  said  that  he  who,  by  the  destruction  of  its  venerable 
edifices,  should  deprive  posterity  of  the  pleasure  of  beholding 
them,  must  be  deemed  an  enemy  to  mankind.  The  king 
desisted  from  the  execution  of  his  purpose,  if  it  had  been  ever 
seriously  entertained;  and  taking  with  him  the  senators,  and 
ordering  what  remained  of  the  citizens  to  be  sent,  under  a 
strong  guard,  into  Campania,  he  marched  away  with  his 
army.1 

I  shall  not  pursue  the  thread  of  this  melancholy  story. 
After  a  further  resistance  of  six  years,  Totila  was  finally 
defeated  by  Narses,  who  had  succeeded  to  Belisarius;  and  he 
died  of  his  wounds.  This  happened  in  552.  The  Goths, 
who  had  chosen  Teia  for  their  leader,  still  attempted  all  that 
courage  and  desperation  could  effect.  Their  fate,  however, 
was  not  long  suspended.  A  bloody  battle  was  finally  fought, 
in  which  Teia  fell;  and  the  nation  submitted  to  the  superior 
fortune  of  Narses.  Thus  ended  the  dominion  of  the  Goths 
in  Italy,  in  the  twenty-sixth  year  of  the  reign  of  Justinian, 
the  eighteenth  of  the  Gothic  war,  and  of  the  Christian  aera, 
553,  after  they  had  reigned  sixty-four  years,  from  Theodoric 
to  Teia. 

Italy  was  now  once  more  in  the  hands  of  a  polished  nation, 
and  governed  by  the  victorious  and  virtuous  Narses,  who  was 
saluted  by  the  flattering  title  of  her  deliverer.  She  had  need 
of  that  repose  which,  under  his  powerful  protection,  she 
might  well  hope  to  obtain;  and  in  the  same  auspicious  cir- 
cumstances, the  renewed  intercourse  with  Greece  seemed  not 
unlikely  to  restore  a  portion  of  her  former  intellectual  vigour; 
and  to  rekindle  the  love  of  letters  and  of  the  arts.  But  was 

1  Procop.  iii.  22. 


TO  774.]         REIGN  OF  THE  LOMBARDS.  77 

it  probable  that  the  Byzantine  court,  which  was  itself  menaced 
by  surrounding  nations,  would  be  able  to  afford  protection? 
Was  it  probable  that  the  barbaric  thrones,  now  firmly  esta- 
blished in  the  countries  of  Europe,  would  quietly  permit  Con- 
stantinople to  enjoy,  without  further  molestation,  her  newly 
acquired  territory?  Was  it  probable  that  the  northern  tribes 
would  attempt  no  new  inroads  on  that  envied  soil  which  had 
already  proved  so  alluring  to  their  propensities  for  conquest 
and  rapine? 

The  government  of  Narses  was  as  pacific  as  the  agitation 
which  had  been  caused  by  the  late  dreadful  storms  would  per- 
mit: but  little  could  be  effected  in  the  short  period  of  four- 
teen years.  In  567  he  was  recalled  by  Justin,  the  successor 
of  Justinian;  and,  in  the  following  year,  Longinus,  with  the 
title  of  Exarch,  fixed  his  seat  at  Ravenna.  The  majesty  of 
the  western  emperor  was  represented  by  him  and  his  suc- 
cessors in  the  same  office;  and  they  continued  to  enjoy  some 
authority  for  the  space  of  a  hundred  and  eighty-three  years, 
or  from  568  to  751;  when  Ravenna  was  taken,  and  the  last 
Exarch  compelled  to  retire. 

Longinus  had  scarcely  arrived  when  it  was  reported  that 
a  new  nation  of  invaders  was  proceeding  from  Pannonia  and 
the  adjacent  countries.  These  were  the  Lombards,  with 
many  allies,  and  with  their  wives,  children,  flocks,  and  pro- 
perty, under  the  conduct  of  Alboin,  a  renowned  warrior.  It 
has  been  confidently  asserted,  that  he  was  instigated  to  the 
enterprise  by  Narses,  who  was  indignant  at  the  usage  which 
he  had  experienced  from  the  imperial  court.  The  Lombards 
entered  the  country  without  any  opposition ;  and  having 
taken  many  cities,  and  caused  much  desolation,  they  finally 
established  their  seat  of  government  at  Pavia,  which  had  sub- 
mitted, after  an  obstinate  resistance  of  more  than  three  years. 

Thus  commenced  the  reign  of  the  Lombards,  which  (with 
the  short  interruption  of  ten  years,  during  which  a  species 
of  federal  government,  under  certain  dukes,  prevailed),  con- 
tinued, in  a  long  succession  of  kings,  down  to  the  year  774. ' 

It  has  been  made  a  question  among  some  learned  Italians,2 
whether  the  Lombards  were  as  barbarous  in  their  manners, 

1  See  Paulas  Diaconus,  De  Gestis  Langobnrdonim,  ii.  Rer.  Ital.  i. — He 
wiis  himself  ii  Lombard,  and  wrote  his  history,  under  Charlemagne,  ill  the 
eighth  century. 

*  See  Muratori,  Ann.  d'ltal.  pass.  TiraboscLi,  Stor.  del.  Lett.  iii. 


78  LITEKAEY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

and  as  cruel  in  their  warfare,  as  they  are  generally  repre- 
sented; and  whether,  under  their  sway,  Italy  enjoyed  secu- 
rity, or  was  harassed  by  unceasing  oppression.  That  the 
state  of  learning  was  deplorable,  no  one  is  ready  to  deny;  and 
I  know  not  that  the  accession  of  any  new  cause  was  neces- 
sary to  accelerate  the  extinction  of  taste,  which  has  been 
already  described.  But  when  we  take  into  the  account,  not 
the  first  aggression  of  the  Lombards,  but  the  intestine  wars 
which  were  waged  between  them  and  the  cities  which  perse- 
vered in  their  allegiance  to  the  Byzantine  throne;  with  the 
consequent  ravage  and  solicitude;  with  the  manners  of  a 
people,  not  less  ferocious,  nor  less  illiterate  than  the  Goths, 
when  they  first  entered  Italy,  we  behold  an  increased  mass  of 
causes  in  action  to  depress  every  liberal  pursuit,  and  stifle 
every  intellectual  exertion.  The  name  of  no  one  Lombard 
king,  as  the  historian  of  Italian  literature  observes,1  merits  a 
place  in  the  annals  of  letters.  The  princes  of  the  Gothic 
line,  if  Theodoric  may  be  excepted,  had  themselves  few  pre- 
tensions to  anything  like  literary  distinction,  but  they  could 
value  learning  in  others;  and  it  has  been  seen  what  place  in 
their  councils  was  occupied  by  Cassiodorus  and  Boetius.  Or 
was  it  that,  when  the  Goths  reigned,  letters  had  not  ceased 
to  be  cultivated,  and  men  of  eminence  could  be  found;  whilst, 
under  the  government  of  the  Lombards,  ignorance  had  be- 
come more  indissolubly  conjoined  with  barbarism? 

The  writers,  in  general,  who  speak  of  those  times,  are  not 
sparing  of  their  severity,  and  none  are  less  indulgent  than 
those  of  Rome,  who,  as  their  city  obeyed  the  Exarch,  often 
suffered  from  the  hostile  inroads  of  the  Lombards.  The 
virulence  of  their  expressions  is  sometimes  extreme.  Their 
countryman  and  historian,2  Paul  Winfrid,  took  a  very  differ- 
ent view  of  the  state  of  things,  and  the  character  of  the  Lom- 
bards. He  does  not  indeed  celebrate  their  love  of  science,  or 
their  patronage  of  the  arts;  but  he  draws  an  enchanting 
picture  of  the  administration  of  the  provinces,  under  their 
third  king.  "  No  violence,"  says  he,  "  was  here  committed, 
no  snares  were  laid:  no  one  was  molested,  no  one  spoiled: 
there  was  no  rapine,  no  thefts:  but  all,  void  of  apprehension, 
followed  their  several  occupations  in  security."  It  is  in  such 
circumstances  that  letters  and  the  arts  prosper,  when  other 

1  T.  iii.  87.  -  Paul.  Diac.  iii.  1C. 


TO  774.]       STATE  OF  LEARNING  UNDER  THE  LOMBARDS.  79 

incitements  are  not  wanting  to  promote  their  cultivation. 
But  such  incitements  did  not  exist  in  the  times  of  which  we 
are  speaking. 

We  read  little  of  public  schools;  and  books  which  had  not 
been  in  great  abundance  at  any  time,  had  been  rendered 
still  more  scarce,  by  the  pillage  of  cities  and  the  destruction 
of  monasteries.  The  Lombards,  says  the  historian,1  invading 
Mount  Casino,  laid  everything  waste,  when  the  monks 
escaped  "  with  a  copy  of  their  holy  institute,  and  a  few  other 
writings."  Industry  would  have  re-supplied  the  means  of 
instruction,  had  not  the  military  habits  of  many,  and  the 
pressing  exigencies  of  penury  in  others,  with  the  continual 
dread  of  hostile  attacks,  effectually  suppressed  every  tendency 
to  intellectual  improvement.  I  must  be  understood  to  allude 
principally  to  the  remains  of  the  old  inhabitants  of  the 
country,  few  of  whom  were  now  free  from  Gothic  contamina- 
tion; and  nothing,  certainly,  can  be  more  deplorable  than 
the  account  transmitted  to  us  of  the  state  of  Koine  by  her 
bishop  St.  Gregory,2  who  witnessed  the  scenes  of  distress 
which  attended  the  progress  of  the  Lombard  arms.  "  All  is 
lost,"  he  says,  "and  swept  away.  Our  population  is  dwindled 
to  an  inconsiderable  number,  and  the  sword  of  the  enemy, 
aided  by  innumerable  miseries,  accelerates  the  decrease.  Nor 
do  men  alone  perish;  the  public  edifices,  the  monuments  of 
our  ancient  grandeur,  are  every  day  falling  into  ruin.  There 
was  a  time,  when  the  youth  of  foreign  countries  crowded  to 
these  walls  to  learn  the  sciences,  and  to  claim  their  rewards. 
Alas!  no  one  repairs  now  for  instruction  or  advancement  to 
a  city  which  resounds  only  with  lamentation,  and  which  is,  in 
fact,  no  better  than  a  desert." 

What  then  could  be  expected  ?  The  greater  part  of  the 
country  was  subject  to  a  nation,  regardless  of  learning,  if  not 
wholly  ignorant  of  its  name :  the  remainder  was  occupied  by 
the  needy  dependents  on  the  Byzantine  court,  whose  attention 
was  engrossed  by  considerations  very  different  from  those  of 
intellectual  improvement.  Learning,  in  all  its  branches,  left 
without  patronage,  without  encouragement,  withered  aw;iy 
like  a  tree  in  a  frozen  wild  ;  and  it  is  in  vain  that  we  look 
through  the  annals  of  the  times,  for  a  single  literary  produc- 
tion, which  the  philosopher,  the  historian,  the  poet,  or  any 

1  I'liul.  Diac.  iv.  18.  2  See  Op.  Sti.  Greg.  puss. 


80  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

man  of  the  smallest  classical  pretensions  could,  for  a  moment, 
peruse  with  satisfaction. 

The  historian,1  whom  I  have  often  quoted,  and  whose  in- 
dustrious researches  into  the  state  of  learning  were  animated 
by  a  laudable  partiality  to  his  country,  here  almost  suspends 
his  progress  in  despair.  The  times,  indeed,  says  he,  were 
times  of  misery  and  universal  desolation,  when  even  the 
common  appellations  which  are  given  to  the  followers  of 
science  were  barely  understood,  and  when  a  man  who  could 
write  Latin  with  any  purity,  who  knew  a  few  words  of 
Greek,  or  could  make  verses,  was  deemed  a  prodigy.  He 
then  proceeds,  with  his  usual  accuracy,  to  investigate,  under 
each  head,  the  state  of  letters,  and  rescues  a  few  names  from 
oblivion  which  had  not  been  utterly  lost;  but  it  was  only  to 
prove  that  oblivion  was  the  state  to  which  they  must  return, 
and  that  the  age  which  could  value  such  writers  was  one  of 
profound  ignorance  and  general  barbarism. 

Though  the  condition  of  polite  learning  was  in  such  an  ab- 
ject state,  are  we  to  presume  that  the  studies  connected  with 
religion  were  equally  neglected  ?2  While  these  are  upheld  in 
any  repute,  the  art  of  elegant  composition  may  be  overlooked ; 
but  many  branches  of  valuable  knowledge  must  be  cultivated, 
and  it  should  seem  that  that  eloquence  which  was  here  con- 
nected with  the  best  interests  of  man,  can  never  want  encou- 
ragement. 

Ecclesiastical  studies  are  not,  it  must  be  confessed,  without 
a  claim  upon  our  gratitude.  They  served  to  keep  alive  the 
spirit  of  inquiry  ;  and  they  preserved  the  Latin  language 
from  utter  extinction,  whilst  they  helped  to  soften  the  barba- 
rous manners  of  the  northern  tribes.  They  imposed  some  re- 
straint on  the  universal  tendency  to  the  use  of  arms;  they 
allured  less  ardent  minds  to  the  occupation  of  retirement; 
within  the  churches  and  in  the  monasteries,  they  opened  re- 
ceptacles for  such  works  of  profane  and  sacred  lore  as  had 
escaped  the  ravage  of  war.  The  monastic  institution  caused 
many  hands  to  be  employed  in  multiplying  or  beautifying 
copies.  They  might  themselves  often  not  know  the  value  of 
their  treasures,  and  might  expend  labour  on  what  merited 

'    J  Tiraboschi,  Storia  della  Letter,  iii. 
2  See  the  Bibliotlieca  Patrum  pass. 


TO  774.]  GREGORY  THE  GREAT.  81 

only  neglect;  but  still  they  contributed  to  preserve  many 
works  which  would  otherwise  have  perished. 

Amongst  the  churchmen  of  this  age  whose  writings  are 
not  undeserving  of  attention,  and  which  are  characterized  by 
an  air  of  majesty  and  a  tone  of  eloquence,  which  would  not 
have  disgraced  times  of  higher  cultivation,  I  must  not  omit  to 
mention  Gregory,  the  first  of  the  name,  who,  from  the  year 
•590  to  604,  occupied  the  chair  of  St.  Peter.  The  appellation 
of  Great,  by  which  he  is  best  distinguished,  attests  the  opinion 
which  was  entertained  of  his  general  character;  but  does  not 
the  appellation,  at  the  same  time,  prove,  that  when  one  man 
merited  to  be  so  distinguished,  his  contemporaries  had  few 
claims  to  notice:  and  that  the  standard  of  general  excellence 
was  very  low?  Whilst  in  extolling  the  literary  character  of 
St.  Gregory,  some  writers  have,  perhaps,  been  too  lavish  of 
their  praise,  others  have  not  hesitated  to  represent  him  as 
no  less  hostile  to  polite  learning  and  the  arts,  than  were  the 
Lombards  themselves,  on  whose  barbarous  manners  he  often 
animadverts  in  his  epistles.  The  chai'ges  against  him  are 
reduced  to  the  following  heads:  that  he  expelled  from  Rome 
the  mathematical  studies;  that  he  burnt  the  Palatine  library, 
first  collected  by  Augustus  Cresar;  that  himself  despised  clas- 
sical learning,  which  he  forbad  others  to  pursue;  and  that  he 
destroyed  many  profane  monuments  of  art,  with  which  the 
city  had  been  embellished. 

These  are  serious  charges,  and  have  been  vigorously  main- 
tained: but  the  grounds  on  which  they  rest  appear  to  me  so 
weak,  and  to  have  been  so  triumphantly  refuted,  that  I  see 
little  necessity  for  prosecuting  the  same  subject,1  and  shall 
-dismiss  it  with  the  observation,  that  if  the  age  had  possessed 
more  men  as  well  entitled  as  St.  Gregory  certainly  was  to 
the  reputation  of  virtue,  of  science,  and  of  literature,  the 
reign  of  the  Lombards  in  Italy  would  not  have  been  synony- 
mous with  the  reign  of  barbarism.  Rome,  indeed,  was  not 
under  their  dominion;  but  the  reader  has  beheld  the  opera- 
tion of  the  various  causes  which  gradually  occasioned  the  de- 

1  See  Timlosclii,  iii.  104 — 13.ri,  who.  with  great  acuteness  and  solidity 
ol  iviiMiiiing,  replies  to  the  arguments  of  the  Gmiinu  IJnie.ker,  His:.  Grit. 
1'hilos.  iii.  ii.  •->.  See  iilso,  M.  de  St.  Croix's  dissertation  already  referred 
to,  in  the  ^fl'm.  iii -x  Tiisi-riji/iinis  it  ffi'lli'x  Lrt/rrs,  vol.  -1!)  ;  and  also  a  dis- 
sertation by  Kurin  on  the  (I reck  sophists,  in  vol.  1.  of  the  Attl  delt  Acudr- 
mia  Ititliim/i  di  Mrii-iize,  Letter'-,  <>.d  Arti. 

G 


82  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

cline  of  letters,  and  to  which  an  increased  energy  was  com- 
municated by  the  martial  ferocity  of  the  Lombards. 

I  do  not  mean  to  insinuate  that  the  immediate  successors 
of  Gregory  were  all  destitute  of  literary  accomplishments, 
though,  in  an  age  of  ignorance,  but  little  attention  is  due  to 
the  eulogy  of  contemporaries.  Toward  the  close  of  the 
seventh  century,  when  Agatho  was  bishop  of  Rome,  we  have 
irrefragable  proof  of  the  low  state  of  ecclesiastical  learning. 
A  Roman  synod  was  convened  to  deliberate  on  certain  com- 
munications which  had  been  received  from  Constantinople; 
and  it  was  agreed  to  send  deputies  into  the  East  with  letters 
to  the  emperor  from  the  pontiff  and  the  council.  The  de- 
puties were  seven,  bishops  and  priests;  and  as  the  synod  was 
numerously  attended,  we  may  fairly  presume  that  they  were 
selected  with  care.  "  It  is  not,"  says  Agatho,  "  from  any 
confidence  which  we  place  in  their  knoAvledge;  for  how  can 
the  perfect  science  of  the  scriptures  be  found  amongst  men, 
who  live  in  the  midst  of  a  barbarous  people,  and  with  diffi- 
culty earn  their  bread  by  the  labour  of  their  hands?  It  is 
only  with  simplicity  of  heart,  that  we  preserve  the  faith  de- 
livered to  us  by  our  fathers."  With  these  delegates,  he  adds, 
that  he  had  sent  such  books  and  extracts  as  might  be  neces- 
sary to  explain  the  faith  of  the  apostolic  church,  and  he  en- 
treats the  emperor  to  give  an  indulgent  hearing  "to  their 
illiterate  expositions."  The  substance  of  the  second  letter  is 
of  similar  import.  The  bishops  speak  of  their  learning  in 
the  same  humble  strain;  which,  in  truth,  the  style  of  the  let- 
ter sufficiently  attests,  observing  that,  "  at  this  time,  no  one 
among  them  can  boast  of  worldly  eloquence." l 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  this  humble  representation  of 
the  learning  of  the  Roman  church  was  extorted  by  the  force 
of  truth;  for,  in  all  intercourse  with  the  East,  and  parti- 
cularly at  this  time,  when  the  rival  sees  had  been  warmly 
contending  for  pre-eminence,  no  example  can  be  found  of 
gratuitous  self-abasement.  What  then  must  have  been  the 
learning  of  other  churches,  if  that  of  Rome,  by  her  own  con- 
fession to  an  inveterate  adversary,  was  reduced  so  low  ? 

More  than  half  a  century  after  this,  king  Pepin  of  France 
requested  some  books  from  the  pontiff,  Paul  I.  "  I  have  sent 
to  you,"  replied  his  holiness,  "  what  books  I  could  find." 

1  Ap.  Baron.  Anual.  Eccl.  ad.  an.  680. 


TO  774.]  ARTS    UNDER    THE    LOMBARDS.  83 

To  such  a  benefactor  as  Pepin  had  been  to  the  apostolic  see, 
the  selection,  doubtless,  was  as  munificent  as  goodwill  and 
gratitude  could  make  it.  The  libraries,  however,  of  Rome 
could  supply  nothing  more  valuable  than  an  Antiphonale  and 
a  Responsale,  a  Grammatica  Arislotelis  (a  work  not  known), 
Dionysii  Areopagita  Libros,  Geometrian,  Orthographian, 
Grammaticam"  all  Greek  writers.1  When  only  such  works 
as  these,  whether  spurious  or  authentic,  could  be  offered  or 
accepted,  no  further  researches  after  proofs  of  complete  bar- 
barism need  be  made. 

This  miserable  state  of  letters  was,  doubtless,  not  more  fa- 
vourable in  that  of  the  fine  arts.  The  devastation  which  had 
been  caused  by  the  inveterate  contest  between  the  Greeks 
and  the  Gothic  kings  continued  with  equal  fury  between  the 
Lombards  and  the  Greeks.  The  rapacity  of  the  Greeks,  at 
the  same  time,  kept  pace  with  the  barbarism  of  the  Lom- 
bards; and  they  might  well  reason,  that,  when  an  occasion 
offered,  it  was  allowable  for  them  to  make  reprisals  on  Rome, 
and  recover  some  portion  of  the  valuable  property  of  which 
their  country  had  been  formerly  despoiled.  In  663,  the  Em- 
peror Constans  repaired  to  Rome,  where,  having  presented 
to  the  blessed  Peter  a  richly  ornamented  mantle,  he  em- 
ployed the  twelve  days  of  his  visit  in  collecting  the  ancient 
monuments  of  bronze,  and  the  tiles  of  that  metal  with  which 
the  Pantheon  was  covered;  which  he  directed  to  be  con- 
veyed to  Constantinople.2  They  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Saracens. 

We  are  informed  that  there  were  artists  among  the  Lom- 
bards, and  that  they  built  many  palaces,  churches,  and  monas- 
teries, which  they  enriched  with  ornaments,  statues,  and 
pictures;  but  the  remains  of  these  incontestably  prove  the 
rudeness  of  their  workmanship  and  the  imperfections  of  their 
skill.  Besides,  when  we  consider  that  he  who  could  write  his 
name  was  viewed  as  a  prodigy,  the  meanest  artist  might 
readily  command  admiration  in  stfch  a  barbarous  age.  In 
describing  the  various  fabrics  of  the  Roman  bishops  who,  at 
this  time,  sat  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  their  historian  dwells 
with  complacency  on  "their  grandeur  and  beauty."3 

The  causes  which  finally  overturned  the  government  of  the 

1  Codex  Carolin.  i. 

2  Paul.  Diac.  v.  11.  *  See  Anast.  Bibliothec.  passim. 

o2 


84  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

Lombards  are  involved  in  obscurity  and  confusion ;  but  the 
unwise  measures  of  its  own  rulers,  the  distracted  councils  of 
the  Byzantine  cabinet,  and  the  deep  policy  of  the  Roman 
court,  contributed  to  its  fall.  Early  in  the  eighth  century,  the 
throne  of  Pavia  was  occupied  by  Liutprand,  who  was  endowed 
with  many  virtues,  and  was  accounted  next  to  Rotharis,  the 
chief  lawgiver  of  his  nation.  Ambition  was  his  ruling  pas- 
sion. Not  satisfied  with  the  extensive  territories  left  to  him 
by  his  predecessors,  and  with  seeing  them  prosper  under  his 
new  laws — the  wisdom  of  which  is  the  theme  of  strenuous 
commendation1 — he  undertook  to  expel  the  Romans,  as  they 
were  called,  that  is,  the  forces  of  the  Grecian  empire,  from 
the  soil  of  Italy.  His  arms  were  attended  with  success;  but 
it  roused  the  jealousy  of  the  Roman  bishops,  who  were  appre- 
hensive of  being  reduced  under  the  power  of  a  people  whom 
they  had  always  professed  to  despise,  and  of  losing  the  chance, 
however  remote,  of  one  day  acquiring  the  possession  of  the 
dukedom  of  Rome,  and  the  cities  of  the  Exarchate.  In  this 
posture  of  affairs,  when  no  military  aid  against  the  Lombards 
could  be  obtained  from  Constantinople,  and  when  its  edicts 
against  the  worship  of  images  excited  the  utmost  indignation 
in  Rome,  Gregory,  the  second  of  the  name,  implored  the  pro- 
tection of  the  French  king.  This  sovereign  was  the  celebrated 
Charles  Martel,  who  promised,  if  necessary,  to  march  into 
Italy.2 

After  the  death  of  Liutprand  in  743,  in  whom,  if  we  may 
believe  his  historian,  "  letters"  alone  were  wanting  to  consti- 
tute a  perfect  prince,  the  sceptre  was  held,  for  a  few  months, 
by  Hildebrand,  and  afterwards  by  Rachis.  New  laws  were 
added  by  Rachis  to  the  code,  which  was  already  sufficiently 
voluminous.  He  then  pursued  the  ambitious  plans  of  Liut- 
prand, which,  however,  the  eloquent  address  of  the  Roman 
bishop  Zachary  induced  him  to  relinquish,  when,  putting  on 
the  habit  of  St.  Benedict,  he  retired  to  Mount  Casino.  His 
brother  Astulphus  was  his  successor.  With  him  the  kingdom 
rose  to  its  highest  elevation.  He  subjected  the  Exarchate,  and 
invaded  the  dukedom  of  Rome,  when  the  pontiff,  Stephen  II., 
who  had  in  vain  applied  to  Constantinople  for  relief,  had 
recourse,  like  his  predecessors,  to  the  French  monarch,  whom 

1  See  Rer.  Ital.  i.  ii.  Antiq.  Ital.  ii.  Diss.  xxii. 

2  Paul.  Diac.  vi.  Greg.  Turon. 


TO  774.]     END  OF  THE  LOMBARD  GOVERNMENT.         85 

Astulphus,  in  a  moment  of  inconsideration,  permitted  him  to 
visit.  Pepin,  the  son  of  Charles  Martel,  was  seated  on  the 
Gallic  throne.  In  this  interview,  and  during  the  stay  which 
Stephen  made  in  France,  a  plan  of  operations  was  adjusted; 
and  when,  after  an  interval  of  some  months,  Astulphus  would 
listen  to  no  terms,  a  French  army,  with  their  king,  crossed  the 
Alps;  laid  siege  to  Pavia ;  and  compelled  the  Lombard  to 
accept  the  terms  of  peace  which  were  generously  offered,  and 
to  surrender  his  conquests.1 

But  when  the  enemy  was  out  of  sight,  Astulphus  pei-fidi- 
ously  revoked  the  concessions  he  had  made,  and  marched 
against  Rome.  Stephen  once  more  implored  foreign  aid;  and 
again  the  armies  of  France  came  to  his  assistance.  Astulphus 
now  consented  to  fulfil  all  the  stipulations  of  the  late  treaty, 
according  to  which,  under  a  solemn  instrument  of  donation 
previously  settled  by  Pepin,  "  the  Exarchate,  with  its  depen- 
dent cities,  is  made  over  in  perpetuity  to  the  Roman  pontiff, 
and  his  successors  in  the  chair  of  Peter."2  The  temporal 
sceptre  was  thus  added  to  the  spiritual  keys;  the  sovereignty 
to  the  priesthood ;  and  the  bishops  of  Rome  were  aggrandized 
by  the  spoils  of  the  Lombard  kings,  and  of  the  descendants  of 
Constantine.  This  was  in  the  year  755. 

Astulphus  did  not  long  survive  this  event;  and  as  he  left 
no  male  issue,  the  vacant  throne  became  the  object  of  a  vigorous 
contest  between  duke  Desiderius  and  the  monk  Rachis, 
whom  the  lustre  of  the  sceptre  allured  from  the  retirement  of 
Mount  Casino.  Desiderius  proved  the  successful  combatant; 
and  during  several  years  enjoyed,  in  some  measure,  a  tranquil 
reign:  but  differences  arose  between  him  and  the  Roman 
court,  when  the  son  of  Pepin,  Charles,  who  was  afterwards 
called  Charlemagne,  marched  into  Italy ;  sat  down  before 
Pavia;  visited  Rome  in  solemn  pomp,  where  he  confirmed  to 
the  pontiff  the  donation  of  his  father;  and  returning  to  the 
Lombard  capital,  compelled  it  to  surrender.  Desiderius,  who 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  conqueror,  was  sent  into  Gaul. 
Thus  ended  the  kingdom  of  the  Lombards,  after  a  continu- 
ance of  more  than  two  hundred  years;  and  in  the  summer  of 
the  year  774  the  ruler  of  the  Franks  became  the  monarch  of 
Italy. 

While  the  powers  of  mind  lay  everywhere  in  a  state  of 

1  Lib.  Pontif.  iu  Stepli.  *  Ibid. 


86     LITERARY  HISTORY  OP  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.    [A.D.  476 

torpid  inertness,  it  will  readily  be  understood  why  the  pages 
of  ecclesiastical  history  in  this  period  are  so  barren  of  events. 
Even  the  active  controversies  of  the  East,  excited  by  the 
Nestorians,  the  Eutychians,  the  Monothelites,  and  recently 
by  the  Iconoclasts,  would  have  excited  little  interest,  if  the 
Roman  bishop,  as  first  pastor  of  the  church,  had  not  deemed 
it  his  duty  to  interfere.  Metaphysical  theology  could  take 
little  hold  of  their  gross  conceptions.  To  the  question  of 
image  worship,  however,  which  was  more  palpable  to  sense, 
the  western  people  were  not  indifferent.  The  reason  which 
induced  most  of  the  Gothic  nations,  soon  after  their  settle- 
ments, to  embrace  the  Arian  tenets,  may  be  found  in  the  cha- 
racter of  their  instructors;  and  when  Arianism,  or  any  other 
doctrine,  had  taken  hold  of  such  minds,  they  were  likely  to 
adhere  to  it  with  obstinate  tenacity. 

Though  the  condition  of  Latin  literature,  as  we  have  seen 
it  in  Italy,  sufficiently  marks  the  level  to  which  it  was  reduced 
in  other  regions  of  the  west,  I  must  not  omit  a  few  names, 
not  unfamiliar  to  many  readers,  and  whose  learning,  such  as 
it  was,  was  usefully  employed  in  recording  facts,  and  in  dif- 
fusing a  scanty  portion  of  general  knowledge. 

In  the  sixth  century  lived  Gregory  of  Tours,  the  father  of 
French  and  of  German  story.  His  Annals,  in  ten  books, 
briefly  relate  the  general  events  of  the  church  to  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Gallic  monarchy,  and  thence  proceed,  in  a  more 
copious  narration,  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  to  the  year  591, 
soon  after  which  he  died.  We  are  certainly  under  many 
obligations  to  this  good  archbishop,  though  the  simplicity  and 
credulity  of  his  character  have  often  been  unfavourable  to  the 
cause  of  truth.  His  style  is  rude,  vulgar,  and  barbarous;  his 
sentences  dissonant,  and  his  words  not  always  Latin.  His 
writings  exhibit  the  exact  lineaments  of  the  age.  When 
they  are  read,  it  is  for  the  facts  which  they  furnish;  but  these 
must  be  selected  with  caution,  and  that  discrimination  must  be 
exercised  of  which  he  had  not  the  smallest  share.  In  some 
other  works,  on  the  Lives  of  Saints,  his  credulity  is  not 
restrained  within  any  common  bounds;  and  he  delivers  the 
most  fabulous  tales  as  the  certain  documents  of  history.1 

Since  the  foundation  of  the  French  monarchy  by  Clovis, 
toward  the  close  of  the  fifth  century,  learning  had  everywhere 

1  Bib.  P.  C.  vi.    See  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  and  Fabricius,  Bib.  Lat.  med.  aetat. 


TO  774.]  SPAIN    UNDER    THE    GOTHS.  87 

experienced  a  more  sensible  decline.  The  Latin  language, 
however  degenerated,  was  succeeded  by  a  more  vulgar 
tongue,  which  was  a  sort  of  corrupt  and  perverted  jargon  of 
the  language  of  ancient  Rome.  The  mind  of  Clovis  was  only 
that  of  an  uncivilized  soldier;  and  the  minds  of  his  successors 
were  of  the  same  description,  till  we  come  to  those  weak 
and  dissolute  men,  whom  history  has  so  emphatically  styled 
JFaineans,  Avith  whom  the  first  race  expired;  and  that  of  the 
Carlovingians,  commenced  in  the  person  of  Pepin,  the  son. 
of  Charles  Martel,  in  the  year  751.  The  manners  and  tastes 
of  the  people  were  not  less  gross  than  those  of  the  prince;  and 
with  the  exception  of  some  churchmen,  but  few  aspired  to 
any  other  praise  than  that  of  martial  prowess.  Letters  were 
despised,  as  adapted  only  to  the  sluggish  habits  of  the  cloister. 
In  these  cloisters,  schools  were  still  open,  and  some  means  of 
instruction  were  offered  to  the  public. 

But  the  age  could  boast  of  a  poet,  Venantius  Forturatus,  a 
native  of  Italy,  afterwards  bishop  of  Poitiers,  and  the  friend 
of  the  Roman  Gregory,  to  whom  eleven  books  of  poems  are 
dedicated,  as  also  four  on  the  life  of  St.  Martin.1  The  muse 
of  Venantius  has  found  admirers,  and  his  contemporaries 
spoke  with  admiration  of  his  various  talents;  but  he  seems  to 
have  formed  a  truer  judgment  of  himself.  When,  in  lines 
void  of  all  taste  and  purity,  he  describes  his  own  defects  of 
intellect  (ast  ego  sensus  inops),  we  may  praise  his  piety  and 
self-abasement;  but  his  poetry  is  not  heightened  by  the  con- 
fession. I  can  allow  the  Lombard  deacon,  Paul  Warnefrid, 
to  write2  his  panegyric,  particularly  as  it  exhibits  a  criterion 
of  the  literary  estimate  of  the  times;  but  from  the  mouth  of 
a  modern  critic  we  expect  a  sounder  verdict.3 

I  shall  not  dwell  on  the  history  of  the  Spanish  government 
under  the  Gothic  kings,  which  presents  little  more  than  scenes 
of  internal  feuds  and  bloodshed,  with  few  objects  on  which 
the  mind  can  repose  with  unmixed  delight.4  As  in  Italy  and 
Gaul,  the  language  of  the  northern  conquerors  yet  prevailed, 
though  it  daily  acquired  more  softness,  and  a  richer  phraseo- 
logy, by  an  insensible  commixture  with  the  remains  of  the 
Roman  tongue,  in  which  the  service  of  the  church  was  per- 

1  Bib.  I'.  ('.  vi.    See  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  and  Fabricius,  Bib.  Lot.  med.  setat. 

2  l)e  Gest.  Lungob.  ii.  3  Hist.  Lit.  see.  \i. 
4  Mariana  Hint,  jmsaun. 


88  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

formed,  and  they,  who  had  any  claim  to  the  character  of 
scholars,  continued  to  write. 

Among  the  churchmen  who,  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventh 
century,  threw  some  lustre  on  the  Spanish  nation,  must  be 
named  Isidore,  archbishop  of  Seville,  a  prelate  of  high  cele- 
brity in  the  church;  and  whose  numerous  writings,  ecclesias- 
tical and  profane,  announced  the  variety  of  his  acquirements. 
Passing  over  his  historical  compilations,  his  Commentaries  on 
the  Scriptures,  his  Dogmatical  Tracts,  his  Treatises  on  Dis- 
cipline, and  those  on  Morals,  I  shall  select,  as  more  immedi- 
ately belonging  to  my  province,  his  twenty  books  of  Origins 
or  Etymologies.  The  work  is  extremely  miscellaneous;  but  it 
may  be  considered  as  a  just  epitome  of  the  arts  and  sciences, 
as  they  were  then  understood,  in  which  terms  are  explained, 
principles  laid  down,  and  their  uses  shown.  It  is  plain,  that 
Isidore  had  read  much;  but  though  viewed  by  his  contem- 
poraries as  a  prodigy  of  learning,  and  consulted  as  an  oracle, 
his  knowledge  was  scanty  and  superficial.  "  Heaven,"  ob- 
served his  friend  Braulio,  the  bishop  of  Saragossa,  "had 
given  him  to  Spain,  and  raised  him  up  at  that  time  to  make 
the  monuments  of  the  ancients  known,  and  to  guard  his  coun- 
trymen from  extreme  rusticity  and  barbarism."  In  a  style 
which  is  not  void  of  perspicuity,  he  introduces  the  different 
heads  of  science,  which  he  illustrates  by  apt  quotations. 
These  are  the  "monuments  of  the  ancients;"  and  as  they  are 
sometimes  taken  from  works  which  we  do  not  now  possess, 
their  value  is  not  inconsiderable.  The  fragments  which  their 
labour  has  preserved  have  given  celebrity  to  the  names  of 
Photius  of  Suidas,  and  of  others:  and  Isidore,  therefore, 
should  not  be  left  without  his  due  share  of  praise.  He  drew 
little,  it  may  be  allowed,  from  himself;  but  when  he  speaks 
of  dialectics,  of  mathematics,  of  medicine,  of  man,  of  animals, 
of  the  world,  of  the  earth,  and  of  its  parts  and  products,  we 
seem  to  hear  a  philosopher  of  the  seventh  century  speak;  we 
are  enabled  to  appreciate  his  learning,  and  that  of  his  age; 
and  though  this  be  small,  we  are  pleased  with  the  rich  and 
various  quotations  from  the  authors  of  better  days.1 

Nor  was  Isidore  alone  eminent  in  the  Spanish  church.  He 
had  two  brothers  highly  famed,  one  of  whom,  Leander,  pre- 
ceded him  in  the  see  of  Seville,  who  was,  as  we  are  told,  a 

1  See  Hist.  Lit.  sac.  vii.  Dnpin,  Hist.  Eccles.  Brucker,  iii.  Bib.  Lat. 
med.  setat. 


TO  774.]  SPAIN — GERMANY BRITAIN.  89 

prelate  "  of  eloquent  speech,  endowed  with  many  talents,  and 
not  less  signalized  for  science  than  for  virtue."  The  Gothic 
nation  was  induced,  principally  by  his  persuasive  eloquence, 
to  renounce  the  errors  of  Arius,  "  when,"  says  the  historian,1 
"a  new  light  of  glory  seemed  to  spread  itself  over  the  country; 
peace  was  restored,  commotions  appeased,  and  mirth  and 
public  rejoicings  were,  on  all  sides,  heard." 

The  seventh  century  was  also  remarkable  in  Spain  for  the 
several  synods,  held  principally  at  Toledo;  the  provisions  of 
which,  on  various  subjects,  were  often  judicious,  when  we 
consider  the  lamentable  ignorance  of  the  times.  It  was 
ordained,  that  no  one  should  be  promoted  to  clerical  orders 
"  who  Avas  ignorant  of  the  psalms,  of  the  ceremonies  of  bap- 
tism, and  of  sacred  song."  The  injunction,  it  must  be  owned, 
was  not  unreasonably  severe;  and  we  cannot  be  surprised 
that  the  light  of  glory,  of  which  the  historian  speaks,  so  soon 
passed  away,  when  the  return  of  civil  discord  facilitated  the 
conquest  of  the  Moors,  which,  early  in  the  following  century, 
overwhelmed  all  the  provinces,  and  introduced,  with  a  new 
people,  a  new  order  of  things. 

1  would  not  silently  pass  over  the  provinces  of  Germany 
and  their  language  of  high  antiquity,  but  little  mingled  with 
foreign  idioms,  could  we  discover  in  it  any  traces  of  know 
ledge  which  merited  attention.     Though  their  language  was 
ancient,  it  seemed,  as  yet,  to  have  served  no  other  purposes 
than  those  of  colloquial  intercourse,  or  to  perpetuate,  in  songs 
and  ballads,  the  events  of  battles,  or  the  feats,  often  fabulous, 
of  some  favourite  chieftain.     Latin,  as  in  other  countries,  was 
almost  exclusively  possessed  by  churchmen;  and  what  was 
written  in  that  language  did  not  rise  to  a  higher  standard  of 
excellence  than  the  productions  of  other  countries.     Even  of 
Latin  works  the  number  was  small.2 

Before  I  proceed  to  mention  the  ornament  of  our  island,  the 
venerable  Bede,  it  may  be  proper  to  observe,  that  the  conver- 
sion of  the  nation  by  agents  from  Rome,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  seventh  century,  had  been  productive  of  many  happy 
effects,  in  a  civil  point  of  view.  The  Christian  missionaries 
brought  with  them  the  learning,  the  language,  the  manners 
of  a  people  certainly  less  ignorant  and  barbarous  than  the 

'  Mariana  Hist.  vi.  1. 

2  See  Leitfuden  zur  Geschichte  der  Gelehrsamkeit,  ii. 


90  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

natives  to  whom  they  came;  and  as  their  influence  increased, 
less  savage  modes  were  likely  to  prevail.  In  speaking  of  the 
Roman  conquests,  I  remarked  the  general  policy  of  their  admi- 
nistration, and  what  changes,  in  common  with  other  countries, 
Britain  had  experienced  under  their  sway.  A  similar  revolu- 
tion was  now  to  happen.  The  new  masters  were,  indeed,  very 
few — compared  with  the  Roman  legions,  who,  at  that  time, 
were  spread  over  the  face  of  the  country;  but  their  powers  of 
persuasion  were  such  as,  within  the  lapse  of  somewhat  more 
than  half  a  century,  to  prevail  on  the  different  nations  of  the 
heptarchy  to  surrender  the  strongest  prepossessions  of  the 
heart,  and  embrace  a  religion  very  different  from  that  which 
they  had  hitherto  professed.  Indeed,  the  single  act  of  adopt- 
ing a  new  religion,  such  as  the  Christian  was,  involved  in  it  a 
series  of  other  changes;  though  it  must  be  confessed  that, 
where  indulgence  could  be  allowed,  pope  Gregory  was  dis- 
posed to  accommodate  his  discipline  to  the  inveterate  habits 
of  the  people.  He  directed  their  ancient  temples  to  be  pre- 
served, and  their  days  of  festivity  to  be  continued.  "  And  as 
the  people,"  he  adds,  in  a  letter  to  St.  Augustin,  "  have  been 
used  to  slaughter  oxen  in  their  sacrifices  to  devils,  some  feasts, 
on  this  account,  must  be  substituted  for  them.  Thus,  on  the 
days  of  the  new  dedication,  (of  churches,)  or  on  the  nativities 
of  the  martyrs  whose  relics  are  there  deposited,  they  may 
build  themselves  huts  of  the  boughs  of  trees  round  the 
churches,  and,  celebrating  the  solemnity  with  religious  feast- 
ing, no  more  offer  beasts  to  the  devil;  but  kill  them  to  the 
praise  of  God  in  their  eating,  and  return  thanks  to  the  giver 
of  all  things.  While  some  pleasures  are  thus  outwardly  per- 
mitted them,  they  will  more  easily  consent  to  inward  joys: 
for  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  is  impossible  to  retrench  all,  at 
once,  from  obdurate  hearts."1 

St.  Augustin  was  attended  in  his  pious  expedition  by  no 
more  than  forty  Italians;  but,  from  this  time,  a  constant 
intercourse  with  Rome  was  established;  and  the  bishops  and 
other  ministers,  as  well  at  Canterbury  as  in  other  sees,  were  in 
a  long  succession  delegated  from  the  same  quarter.  As 
they  were  unacquainted  with  the  barbarous  language  of  the 
people,  we  do  not  readily  understand  by  what  means  they 
communicated  their  instructions;  but  the  many  inconve- 

1  Ap.  Spelman,  Cone.  i. 


TO  774.]  LITERARY  STATE  OF  ENGLAND.  91 

niences  arising  from  this  ignorance  of  the  vernacular  tongue 
would  compel  them — as  it  had  the  Romans  in  an  earlier 
period — to  open  schools,  where  children,  at  least,  would  be 
taught  the  rudiments  of  Latin;  while  some  of  the  strangers 
might  themselves  attempt  to  surmount  the  difficulties  of  the 
Saxon  idiom.  But  at  any  rate  the  schools  which  I  men- 
tioned would  serve  to  diffuse  the  Latin  language.  The  per- 
formance of  the  church  service  in  that  tongue  would  add  to 
the  effect;  and  the  admiration  in  which  the  new  teachers, 
with  their  various  endowments,  would  naturally  be  held, 
could  not  fail  to  recommend  whatever  they  practised,  or  en- 
joined, to  general  imitation.  But  when,  in  process  of  time, 
the  natives  of  the  island,  having  acquired  the  necessary  quali- 
fications, were  promoted  to  ecclesiastical  offices,  greater 
changes  would  be  produced  by  the  influence  of  their  counsels 
and  example;  for,  we  may  be  confident  that  those  persons 
were  principally  selected  who,  in  their  education  and  habits, 
had  manifested  a  striking  preference  of  Roman  manners. 
In  the  meantime,  as  the  first  teachers  and  their  successors 
were  monks,  they  had  brought  the  spirit  of  monachism  with 
them;  and  convents  were  every  where  founded,  which  served 
as  other  schools  of  instruction  to  the  natives,  and  as  semi- 
naries of  ultramontane  taste  and  discipline.  This  we  learn 
from  the  annals  of  the  times. 

The  attempts  which  were  made  to  reconcile  the  remains  of 
the  British  inhabitants  to  the  measures  of  Rome  did  not  suc- 
ceed; but  the  causes  were  obvious.  The  Saxons  were  objects 
of  their  implacable  animosity,  and  therefore  their  new  friends, 
the  strangers  from  Italy,  who  espoused  their  interest,  were 
viewed  with  similar  aversion.  Insulated  by  nature,  and,  as 
the  Romans  withdrew,  daily  more  and  more  cut  off  from  all 
intercourse  with  the  continent,  the  Britons  retained,  with  the 
peculiar  character  of  their  faith  and  discipline,  the  manners 
and  maxims  which  they  had  imbibed  ;  and  these  they  took 
with  them,  when  compelled  by  the  Saxon  conquerors  to  re- 
tire for  refuge  to  the  mountains  of  Wales.  They  besides  took 
the  little  learning  which  had  survived  the  general  wreck. 
When  Augustin  sought  and  obtained  a  conference  with  them, 
seven  British  bishops,  we  are  told,  and  many  learned  men, 
met  him,  chiefly  from  the  noble  monastery  of  Bangor,  in 
Flintshire.1  Here  more  than  two  thousand  monks  resided, 

1  Beda,  Hist.  Eccles.  ii.  •,>. 


92  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

"who  lived  by  the  labour  of  their  hands;"  and  here  we  may 
presume  that  the  monuments  which  remained  of  their  former 
learning  were  preserved. 

Of  the  six  archbishops  who,  in  succession,  had  filled  the 
chair  of  Canterbury,  the  last  only,  Deusdedit,  was  of  Saxon 
origin;  but  it  was  the  wish,  as  it  appeared,  of  the  country, 
that  their  future  prelates  should  be  chosen  from  among  them- 
selves, and,  with  this  view,  an  ecclesiastic,  named  Wighard, 
was  sent  to  Rome.  Here  he  died;  when,  after  some  delibe- 
ration, an  African  abbot,  from  the  •  neighbourhood  of  Naples, 
was  recommended  to  the  pontiff,  learned  in  the  holy  scrip- 
tures, versed  in  monastic  and  ecclesiastical  discipline,  and, 
what  was  more,  "  excellently  skilled  in  the  Greek  and  Latin 
tongues."  But  this  ecclesiastic,  whose  name  was  Adrian,  de- 
clined the  honour,  and  recommended  his  friend  Theodore,  a 
monk,  and  a  native  of  Tarsus  in  Cilicia,  "  well-instructed  in 
secular  and  divine  learning,  also  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  lan- 
guages, a  man  besides  of  exemplary  probity,  as  well  as  vene- 
rable for  his  age,  being  sixty-six  years  old."  Theodore  being 
ordained  by  the  Roman  bishop,  departed  for  his  see,  in  com- 
pany with  Adrian,  who  was  directed  not  only  to  accompany 
his  friend,  but  to  watch  his  conduct,  lest,  from  partiality  to 
the  Greeks,  he  should  introduce  anything  contrary  to  the 
Roman  faith.1 

The  appointment  of  an  Asiatic  prelate,  with  an  African 
counsellor,  to  preside  over  a  Saxon  church,  to  the  language 
and  manners  of  which  they  were  utter  strangers,  was  a  curious 
incident.  On  his  arrival  in  Britain,  about  the  year  670, 
Theodore  visited  all  parts  of  the  island;  and  he  was  every- 
where well  received.  Bennet  Biscop,  a  Saxon  youth,  who 
had  also  accompanied  him  from  Rome,  officiated  as  his  inter- 
preter. By  his  aid,  Christian  admonitions  were  largely  dis- 
tributed; but  Theodore  had  moreover  brought  with  him  many 
Greek  and  Latin  books,  among  which  was  a  beautiful  copy  of 
Homer,  the  Homilies  of  Chrysostom  and  other  works.  He 
deemed  it  not  beneath  the  dignity  of  his  sacred  office  to  ex- 
cite a  taste  for  letters  ;  and,  with  this  view,  in  conjunction 
with  his  friend  Adrian,  he  delivered  lectures  to  the  most 
crowded  audiences  which  his  exertions  could  procure.  He 
blended  more  serious  disquisitions  with  subjects  of  a  lighter 

1  Bcda,  Hist.  Eccles.  iv.  1. 


TO  774,]  ENCOURAGEMENT  OF  VOCAL  MUSIC.  93 

character.  The  historian1  observes,  that  as  a  proof  of  the 
effects  which  those  honourable  labourers  produced,  when  he 
himself  wrote,  individuals  were  found  amongst  the  scholars 
of  those  learned  masters  to  whom  the  Latin  and  Greek  lan- 
guages were  as  familiar  as  their  native  tongue.  He  adds  that 
the  times  were  never  more  happy.  But  the  art  of  singing — 
which  pope  Gregory  had  introduced,  and  Avhich  his  mission- 
aries brought  with  them  into  the  island — was  now  become  an 
essential  part  of  ecclesiastical  education;  and  a  proficiency  in 
this  accomplishment  was  esteemed  a  distinguished  excellence. 
So  highly,  indeed,  was  it  valued,  that  heaven,  it  was  said,2 
sometimes  vouchsafed  to  bestow  it  on  its  peculiar  favourites. 
Music  (even  though  as  deficient  in  melody  as  the  Gregorian 
song)  might  please  the  ears  of  a  barbarous  people,  and  allure 
them  to  the  church  :  but,  at  this  period,  it  occupied  in  all 
countries  more  attention  than  it  merited;  and  contributed  not 
a  little  to  increase  the  distaste  for  more  serious  and  more  im- 
portant studies.3 

The  appointment  then  of  Theodore  to  the  primacy,  when 
we  look  to  its  effects,  was  singularly  fortunate.  He  held  this 
high  office  for  two-and- twenty  years.  His  death  happened 
in  690,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  Berthwald,  a  Saxon  monk, 
who,  as  the  historian  tells  us,  was  well  skilled  in  ecclesiastical 
and  monastic  discipline  ;  but  very  inferior  to  Theodore  in 
literary  and  intellectual  qualifications.  Adrian  survived  his 
friend  many  years,  and,  in  the  monastery  of  which  he  was 
abbot,  continued  the  mode  of  instruction  which  he  so  pros- 
perously began.  But,  in  speaking  of  his  successor  Albin, 
Bede  remarks,4  that,  with  his  ecclesiastical  learning,  he  pos- 
sessed "  no  small  portion  "  of  the  Greek  language  ;  and  was 
as  well  acquainted  with  Latin  as  with  his  own  tongue.  We 
may  therefore  suspect,  notwithstanding  the  former  broad 
assertion,  that  the  lectures  of  the  Greek  masters  were  not 
always  crowned  with  so  much  success  as  has  been  represented. 
Another  of  their  scholars  was  Aldhelm,  an  abbot  and  after- 
wards bishop,  who  is  reported  to  have  composed  the  first 
work  in  Latin,  and  to  have  taught  his  countrymen  the  rules 
of  its  prosody.  He  was  a  man,  says  the  historian/'  clear  and 
elegant  in  his  language,  and  astonishingly  versed  in  sacred 

1  Beda,  Hist.  Eccles.  iv.  2.  *  Ibid.  24. 

»  Brucker,  Hist.  Phil.  iii.  ii.  2.  «  L.  v.  21.  *  L.  v.  19. 


94  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

and  profane  literature,  of  which  he  left  specimens  in  various 
publications. 

Contemporary,  or  nearly  contemporary  with  these  sages  of 
the  heptarchy,  was  Bede,  who,  from  his  superior  learning  and 
admirable  virtues,  received  in  his  life-time  the  appellation  of 
venerable.  He  was  born  in  the  county  palatine  of  Durham, 
within  the  domain  of  two  neighbouring  monasteries;  under  the 
superiors  of  which  he  was  educated  from  his  earliest  youth, 
and  where,  becoming  a  monk,  he  lived,  taught,  and  died.  His 
first  instructor  was  the  abbot  Bennet  Biscop,  the  interpreter 
of  Theodore  when  he  first  came  into  England  ;  and  who  had 
probably  imbibed  a  love  of  letters  from  his  lectures  and  con- 
versation. The  proficiency  of  Bede  in  all  the  branches  of 
learning,  and  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages,  was  certainly 
considerable;  and  while  we  admire  his  acquirements,  we  are 
inclined  to  suppose  that  there  were  others,  amongst  his  bre- 
thren, pursued  the  same  course  ;  and  that  the  late  primate 
and  his  African  friend  had  been  able  to  excite  a  spirit  of  in- 
tellectual cultivation,  the  beneficial  effects  of  which  were  ex- 
tensively diffused.  The  continued  intercourse  with  Rome, 
also,  among  a  people  emerging  from  barbarism,  would  serve 
to  animate  curiosity,  and  to  multiply  the  competitors  for  in- 
tellectual distinction.  Bede  thus  speaks  of  himself  :  "  My 
life  was  spent  within  the  precincts  of  the  same  monastery, 
devoted  to  the  meditation  of  the  divine  word;  and  where,  in 
the  observance  of  conventual  discipline  and  the  songs  of  the 
choir,  it  was  ever  pleasing  to  me  to  learn,  to  teach,  or  to 
write."  He  adds,  that  his  days  were  passed  in  these  occupa- 
tions till  he  arrived  at  the  age  of  fifty-nine  ;  and  he  gives  a 
list  of  the  various  works  which  he  compiled.1 

The  fame  of  the  Saxon  monk,  before  he  had  reached  his 
thirtieth  year,  had  penetrated  to  distant  countries ;  and  pope 
Sergius  requested  that  he  might  be  sent  to  confer  with  him 
in  some  pressing  exigencies  of  the  church.  But  Bede  did  not 
quit  his  cell.  It  was  a  subject  of  astonishment  that  such 
treasuries  of  science  should  be  found  "  in  a  remote  corner  of 
the  globe."  The  superiors  of  these  northern  convents,  indeed, 
seem  themselves  to  have  been  men  of  talents.  They  collected 
books,  improved  the  style  of  architecture,  and  were  the  first 

i  Epit.  Hist.  Eccles.  In  Dr.  Henry's  History  of  England,  there  is  a 
catalogue  of  Bede's  works. 


TO  774.]  VENERABLE    BEDE.  95 

who  made  use  of  glass  in  the  construction  of  windows.  So 
says  the  historian.1  Engaged  in  such  society,  and  interested 
by  the  progress  of  the  arts,  Bede  might  naturally  prefer  the 
calm  seclusion  of  his  monastery  to  the  more  brilliant  attrac- 
tions of  a  journey  to  Rome.  The  number  of  his  pupils  was 
besides  great;  and  he  attended  to  their  instruction  to  his 
dying  hour,  solving  difficulties,  and  proposing  questions  for 
their  exercise.  His  last  labour  was  employed  upon  the  gospel 
of  St.  John,  which,  for  the  improvement  of  those  who  were 
little  versed  in  Latin,  he  expounded  in  the  Saxon  tongue. 
Bede  died  in  735. 

If  the  fame  of  such  a  master  attracted  many  scholars,  we 
might  naturally  expect  a  succession  of  men  of  learning  ;  and 
an  increased  diffusion  of  knowledge.  But  the  historian  whom 
I  have  quoted,  and  who  nourished  in  the  beginning  of  the 
twelfth  century,  observes:2  "With  Bede  was  buried  almost 
the  entire  knowledge  of  events  down  to  our  own  times.  No 
Englishman,  emulous  of  his  learning,  or  pleased  with  his  ele- 
gance, was  anxious  to  follow  his  steps.  Some,  not  altogether 
void  of  letters,  passed  their  days  without  leaving  any  record 
of  their  talents  ;  others,  not  masters  of  the  first  elements,  in- 
dulged in  a  torpid  sloth.  Thus  the  indolent  were  succeeded 
by  a  race  still  more  indolent  than  they;  and,  for  along  period, 
the  love  of  letters  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  Of  this  what 
stronger  evidence  can  be  demanded  than  the  lines  of  the  con- 
temptible epitaph  inscribed  on  the  tomb  of  Bede? 

"  Presbyter  hie  Beda,"  &c. 

"In  the  monastery,  which  was,  while  he  lived,  justly 
deemed  the  school  of  general  science,  could  no  one  be  found 
qualified  to  celebrate  the  praises  of  his  master,  in  language 
more  worthy  of  the  subject?" 

Since  that  time  more  justice  has  been  done  to  the  memory 
of  Bede,  and  more  elegant  Latinity  has  been  employed  in  his 
encomium.  Amongst  his  panegyrists,  the  monk  of  Malmes- 
bury,  whilst  dwelling  with  admiration  on  the  number  and 
clmracter  of  his  works,  hesitates  not  to  say  that  "  heaven  had 
encircled  his  mind  with  copious  streams  of  inspiration."  The 
works  themselves  contain  the  least  ambiguous  testimony  of 
their  value.  They  are  certainly  numerous,  and  on  various 

>  Wil.  Mulmesb.  i.  :j.  "  Ibid. 


96  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

subjects;  evincing  extensive  reading,  an  unbounded  range  of 
curiosity,  unwearied  industry,  and  great  facility  of  composi- 
tion. But  judicious  selection,  nice  discrimination,  or  critical 
exactness,  |is  not  to  be  expected,  when,  whatever  might  be 
the  subject,  sacred  or  profane,  the  highest  proof  of  talents 
and  of  erudition  was  supposed  to  be  furnished  by  a  promis- 
cuous accumulation  of  opinions  and  authorities.  Hence  the 
commentaries  of  Bede  on  the  Scriptures  are  formed  of  ex- 
tracts from  the  fathers;  and  his  philosophy  flowed  from  a 
borrowed  source.  The  Ecclesiastical  History  of  England,  in 
five  books,  from  the  coming  of  Julius  Cresar  to  the  year  731, 
is  his  only  work  which  is  now  read.  He  candidly  cited  the 
authorities  on  which  his  narrative  rests,  and  as  these  were 
sometimes  oral,  they  might  be  fallacious;  but  no  better  could 
be  found.  The  credulity  of  Bede  is  seen  in  the  admission  of 
idle  tales  into  a  history  which,  in  other  respects,  merits  the 
highest  praise.  For  my  part,  I  should  lament,  had  the  his- 
torian of  those  times  been  guided,  in  the  selection  of  his  ma- 
terials, by  a  more  discriminating  scepticism;  for  we  should 
have  wanted  a  just  transcript  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived: 
and  might  even  have  doubted  the  authenticity  of  the  compo- 
sition. As  it  is,  we  see  what  was  at  that  period  the  super- 
stitious character  of  our  ancestors;  and  in  the  historian  we 
behold  a  man,  endowed  with  great  talents,  and  possessed  of 
extraordinary  erudition,  but,  in  those  habits  of  his  mind  in 
which  virtue  was  not  concerned,  not  less  weak  nor  credu- 
lous than  his  contemporaries.  Such  is  sometimes  the  lot  of 
individuals  of  great  learning  and  talents,  till  knowledge,  more 
generally  diifused,  has  dissipated  prejudices,  broken  the  iron 
mace  of  superstition,  and  rendered  the  horizon  of  science 
more  spacious  and  serene.  The  style  of  Bede  is  sufficiently 
perspicuous  and  flowing,  but  not  always  pure,  and  seldom 
elegant. 

As  works  of  really  classical  taste  are  barely  mentioned  by 
Bede,  it  is  probable  that  he  had  read  few,  and  that,  in  his 
public  lectures,  he  proposed  them  not  as  models  for  imitation. 
What  was  the  degree  of  his  proficiency  in  the  Greek  lan- 
guage, does  not  distinctly  appear;  though,  as  observed,  he 
speaks  highly  of  the  acquirements  of  many  of  his  contem- 
poraries, who  had  been  the  scholars  of  Theodore  and  Adrian. 
It  may  then  be  asked,  what  authors  were  generally  read  in 


TO  774.]  WORKS  READ  IN  THE  SCHOOLS.  97 

the  English  and  other  schools?     The  reply  is  not  easy;  but 
the  subject  has  been  carefully  investigated.1 

The  recent  and  high  authority  of  St.  Gregory  appears  to 
have  thrown  discredit  on  the  elegant  productions  of  heathen 
writers,  and  to  have  substituted  others,  which  were  less 
dangerous  to  orthodox  piety.  Among  these  his  own 
Moral  writings  seem  to  have  held  a  conspicuous  place, 
though,  as  he  owns,  they  were  compiled  "  without  regard  to 
the  rules  of  grammar,"  and  with  some  affectation  of  barbarism. 
Of  his  Dialogues,  I  may  add,  that,  as  they  were  written  pur- 
posely to  excite  the  attention  of  an  unlettered  age,  they 
would  provoke  imitation;  and,  probably,  in  addition  to  the 
general  taste,  they  were  no  small  inducement  to  Bede  to  en- 
cumber his  history  with  so  many  tales. 

In  Moral  philosophy  the  works  of  St.  Gregory  became  a 
sort  of  classical  text,  to  which  passages  were  added  from 
other  fathers,  particularly  from  the  works  of  St.  Augustin. 
The  erudition  of  this  great  man  naturally  commanded  respect; 
and  his  acuteness  in  disputation  caused  him  to  be  regarded  as 
a  complete  master  in  the  dialectic  art.  It  has,  however,  since 
been  proved,  that  the  work  which  was  in  most  request  was. 
not  the  genuine  production  of  the  bishop  of  Hippo;  and  had 
it  been  otherwise,  though  the  principles  of  accurate  reasoning 
might  have  been  learned  from  it,  the  general  ruggedness  of 
his  style  and  the  involution  of  his  sentences,  with  other  ble- 
mishes of  African  origin,  must  have  evinced  how  unfit  he 
was  to  reform  a  vitiated  taste;  or  rather  to  exhibit  to  the 
barbarous  tribes  of  Europe  a  perfect  model  of  correct  and 
elegant  composition. 

In  Phil' dot/ y,  Marcianus  Capella  was  the  guide,  a  native 
also  of  Africa,  who,  in  the  fifth  century,  wrote  a  Treatise,  in 
nine  books,  on  the  liberal  arts.  In  the  succeeding  centuries, 
this  work  was  read  with  general  applause;  when  the  asperity 
of  its  style  could  best  accord  with  the  rude  taste  of  Gothic 
ears.  It  became  a  school-book,  in  which  the  grammarian,  as 
Gregory  of  Tours  2  observes,  learned  the  rules  of  construc- 
tion; the  logician  to  arrange  his  arguments;  the  orator  to  per- 
suadr;  the  geometrician  to  trace  his  lines;  the  astrologer  to 
watch  the  courses  of  the  stars;  the  arithmetician  to  fix  his 
numbers,  and  the  lover  of  harmony  to  adopt  his  words  to  the 

1  Bmckcr,  Hist.  Crit.  iii.  2,  c.  -2.  -  X.  Hist.  Frauc.,  /'//./ 

H 


98  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  476 

modulation  of  musical  sounds.  And  it  was  afterwards  ob- 
served of  this  favourite  work,  that  he  who  possessed  its  con- 
tents might  be  deemed  a  master  of  the  whole  circle  of  the 
sciences.  Capella  was  undoubtedly  a  man  of  learning,  and 
his  compilation  recorded  many  opinions  which  were  derived 
from  early  times;  but  a  deep  shade  of  obscurity  was  thrown 
over  the  whole,  and  rendered  it,  without  a  commentator, 
peculiarly  unfit  to  enlighten  the  students  of  a  barbarous  age.1 

The  works  of  Cassiodorus  and  Boetius,  particularly  of 
the  latter,  were  much  studied.  They  were  both,  consider- 
ing the  age  in  which  they  lived,  writers  of  elegance,  and 
abounding  in  valuable  information.  Ignorant  as  men  had,  at 
this  period,  become  of  the  Greek  language,  they  drew  from 
Boetius  some  knowledge  of  its  treasures;  and  his  own  maxims 
became,  as  they  well  deserved,  the  canons  of  their  philosophy. 
Our  Alfred,  it  is  known,  translated  into  the  Saxon  tongue 
the  celebrated  Consolation  of  Philosophy.  Boetius  had  like- 
wise written  on  music,  which,  as  it  was  reckoned  one  of  the 
liberal  arts,  and  was  particularly  cultivated  since  the  days  of 
St.  Gregory,  increased  the  number  of  his  readers.2  The 
work  of  Cassiodorus  which  chiefly  attracted  notice  was  his 
Treatise  on  the  Seven  Arts,  coinciding  in  matter,  but  surpass- 
ing in  style  and  arrangement,  the  Encyclopaedia  of  Marcianus 
Capella. 

Some  scholars  of  better  taste  are  said  not  to  have  disdained 
the  heathen  Macrobius,  and  other  secondary  writers;  and  it  is 
possible  that  the  best  models  may  have  sometimes  passed 
through  their  hands:  but  that  they  derived  no  real  advantage 
from  them  is  clearly  proved  from  the  character  of  their  various 
works  which  are  still  preserved. 

The  subjects  which  were  taught  in  the  schools  were,  soon 
after  this,  comprised  under  the  general  heads  of  Trivium  and 
Quadrivium,  words  which  are  sufficiently  indicative  of  their 
barbarous  origin.  Trivium  included  what  were  deemed  the 
introductory  and  less  noble  arts,  Grammar,  Dialectics,  and 
Rhetoric.  Quadrivium  closed  the  circle  by  Music,  Arith- 
metic, Geometry,  and  Astronomy.  The  following  lines  served 
to  fix  them  in  the  memory: 


1  See  Bib.  Lat.  ii. 

2  See  with  reference  to  Boetius,  M.  Paulmy's  Melanges  tires  dune  grande 
libllotheque,  vol.  13. 


TO  774.]  WORKS    READ    IN    THE    SCHOOLS.  99 

"  Gramm.  loquitur,  Diet,  vera  docet,  Rhet.  verba  colorat : 
Mus.  canit,  Ar.  numeral,  Geo.  ponderat,  Ast.  colit  astra." 

Why  the  place  of  honour  was  rather  given  to  the  latter  than 
to  the  numbers  of  the  Tritium,  does  not  distinctly  appear; 
but  whatever  may  have  been  its  temporaiy  ascendant,  Logic, 
or  rather  the  scholastic  art  of  disputation,  was  afterwards 
pursued  with  so  much  ardour  that  it  absorbed  all  its  sister 
arts,  and  triumphed  over  the  circle  of  the  Quadrivium. 


H2 


BOOK  III. 


STATE  OF  LEARNING  FROM  THE  REIGN  OF  CHARLEMAGNE, 
A.D.  774,  TO  THE  END  OF  THE  TENTH  CENTURY. 


Dispositions  of  Charlemagne  in  regard  to  letters — Flattering  prospect  at 
the  opening  of  the  ninth  century — Why  no  success  followed — The  last 
years  of  Charlemagne — Alcuin,  Paul  Warnefrid  and  Eginhard — The 
successors  of  Charlemagne — State  of  learning  in  Home — And  in  other 
parts  of  the  empire — General  licentiousness — Conversion  of  harbarous 
nations — Rabenns  Manrus — John  Erigena — The  use  of  theological 
controversies — Alfred — Flattering  statement  of  Muratori — Ireland — The 
tenth  century  :  a  general  view — The  monks  not  assiduously  employed — 
The  reigns  of  the  Othos — Literature  of  England  —  St.  Dunstau — 
Gerbert,  afterwards  Sylvester  II. 

Ox  the  fall  of  the  Lombard  kingdom,  and  the  accession  of 
Charlemagne  to  the  throne,  an  era  propitious  to  learning 
might  be  expected  to  arise.  The  prince,  indeed,  was  himself 
ignorant ;  but  he  had  talents,  and  a  mind  susceptible  of  every 
liberal  impression.  The  noble  monuments  of  art  which  Rome 
and  the  other  cities  of  Italy  presented  to  his  view,  and  the 
thoughts  which  would  occasionally  recal  a  period  when  sci- 
ence was  deemed  the  ornament  of  courts,  failed  not  to  force 
a  comparison,  which  tended  to  excite  the  consciousness  of  a 
degrading  inferiority.  The  rude  speech  of  his  ancestors  was 
the  only  language  which  he  possessed  at  this  time,  or  when 
almost  in  his  thirtieth  year;  and  it  is  not  certain  that  he 
was  able  to  write.  But  though  the  multifarious  concerns  of 
an  extended  and  extending  empire  seemed  to  demand  con- 
stant attention,  and  to  interrupt  all  inferior  pursuits,  we  are 
told  that  he  now  began  to  learn  grammar  under  Peter,  a 
deacon  of  Pisa,  as  an  introduction,  we  may  presume,  to  the 
Latin  tongue  ;  and  when  this  was  accomplished,  Alcuin,  an 


LITERARY  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  NINTH  CENTURY.  101 

English  monk,  some  years  later,  became  his  master.  The 
more  noble  circle  of  sciences  was  now  opened  to  him  ;  among 
which  astronomy,  or  rather,  let  me  say,  astrology,  chiefly  fixed 
his  attention.  From  this  time,  the  court  of  Charles,  whether 
in  France,  in  Italy,  or  in  Germany,  became  the  central  point, 
to  which  the  learned  resorted  :  they  travelled  with  him  ;  gave 
public  lectures  ;  and  where  circumstances  seemed  favourable, 
founded  schools  under  his  patronage.1  This  opening  pro- 
mised much;  and  as  a  strong  excitement  was  given,  it  was 
possible  that  a  general  ardour  might  ensue  ;  and  the  people 
might  emulate  the  example  of  the  prince.  In  800  Charles 
was  crowned  Emperor. 

In  pursuing  another  subject,  some  years  ago,  and  coming 
to  this  era,  I  expressed  my  thoughts  in  the  following  observa- 
tions.2 "  It  seemed,"  I  said,  •  "  that  when  the  ninth  century 
opened,  the  clouds  which  had  enveloped  the  western  world 
would  be  dispersed  ;  that  the  human  faculties,  torpid  from 
disuse,  or  degraded  by  a  vitiating  exercise,  would  recover 
more  energy  and  assume  a  more  judicious  direction  ;  that 
religion,  which  vain  controversies  had  disfigured,  would  cast 
off  its  adscititious  coverings,  and  appear,  as  it  once  did,  in 
the  most  attractive  simplicity;  that  a  system  of  ethics,  by 
which  the  heart  of  man  might  be  improved,  and  his 
understanding  invigorated,  would  take  place  of  legendary 
tales,  of  fancied  miracles,  and  imaginary  virtues  ;  that  the 
rights  of  man,  in  the  different  orders  of  society,  ecclesiastical 
and  civil,  would  be  more  distinctly  ascertained;  and  in  one 
word,  that  the  lamp  of  science  would  again  burn,  and  lead  to 
the  most  glorious  and  beneficent  results. 

"  The  reader  who  has  long  closed  every  page  of  this 
history  with  a  desponding  sigh,  will  naturally  ask,  what 
event  it  is  which  now  seems  to  portend  so  fortunate  a  change  ? 
It  is,  that  Charlemagne,  who,  through  the  progress  of  his 
reign,  had  manifested  an  active  zeal  for  the  improvement  of 
the  moral  condition  of  the  human  species,  had  it  now  in  his 
power,  by  the  influence  of  his  own  example,  and  the  appli- 
cation of  all  the  talents  which  his  extensive  dominions  could 
supply,  to  advance  with  a  less  tardy  and  more  successful 
pace  to  the  accomplishment  of  his  wishes.  lie  was  himself 


,  the  friend  unil  secretary  of  Charlemagne,!  Vita  Coroli 
issi,!'.     See  Hil).  Med.  oetat.  i. 
-   History  of  the  Papal  Power.  M.  S. 


102          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         (_A.D.  774 

endowed  with  natural  abilities  of  no  ordinary  kind  ;  he  spoke 
with  cogency  and  with  ease  ;  had  acquired  the  knowledge  of 
some  languages,  and  the  rudiments,  at  least,  of  those  sciences 
which  were  then  taught.  But  studies  which  had  been  neg- 
lected in  his  youth,  were  laborious,  desultory,  and  imperfect. 
They  were  promoted  by  conversation,  rather  than  by  books; 
and  he  seems  never  to  have  acquired  the  easy  practice  of 
writing.  He  was  ardent,  however,  in  the  pursuit  of  scientific 
accomplishments ;  and  the  encouragement  which  he  gave 
to  learning  reflects  the  brightest  and  least  offensive  lustre  on 
his  name.  It  was  likewise  fortunate  for  the  general  interests 
of  morality  that  he  deemed  himself,  as  he  was,  the  political 
head  of  the  church,  and  exercised  an  unlimited  jurisdiction 
over  all  its  members.  This  is  attested  by  the  various  edicts 
which  he  published  under  the  name  of  Capitularies,  for  the 
reform  and  maintenance  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  the  cor- 
rection of  abuses,  and  the  suppression  of  crimes.  At  the 
great  festivals,  wherever  the  business  of  peace  or  war  might 
require  his  presence,  he  met  the  bishops,  abbots,  and  nobles 
of  the  country.  From  those  respectable  informants  he  was 
made  acquainted  with  the  condition  of  the  churches  and 
monasteries,  and]  the  manners  of  the  people  ;  and  in  conjunc- 
tion with  them  he  concerted  measures  for  the  promotion  of 
order  and  virtue.  It  was  his  wish  to  renew  the  more  rigid 
discipline  of  former  days  ;  and  where  that  could  not  be 
restored,  to  enforce  such  measures  as  were  more  suitable  to 
the  times,  and  best  adapted  to  repress  their  manifold  disorders. 
"  With  a  view  to  his  own  improvement  and  that  of  his 
people,  and  in  order  to  diffuse  a  general  ardour  for  literary 
pursuits,  he  collected  round  his  court  such  persons  as  were 
most  distinguished  by  abilities  and  erudition.  With  these  he 
lived  in  habits  of  domestic  intimacy,  and  employed  them  in 
educating  the  princes  of  the  blood,  and  the  children  of  the 
nobility.  The  Anglo-Saxon,  Alcuin,  whom  Charles  called 
his  master,  was  at  the  head  of  this  society,  and  with  a  laud- 
able ambition  was  heard  to  boast,  that,  if  his  own  and  the 
wishes  of  his  scholar  could  be  accomplished,  a  Christian 
Athens  would  soon  be  seen  to  rise,  and  the  Muses  would  fix 
their  abode  in  the  academic  groves  of  France.  In  the  pro- 
secution of  this  noble  design,  not  only  encouragement  was 
offered,  but  commands  were  issued.  The  bishops  erected 
schools  contiguous  to  their  churches;  whilst  the  monks  esta- 
blished them  in  their  monasteries.  Nor  did  the  imperial 


TO   1000.]  CHARLEMAGNE.  103 

court,  as  it  moved,  fail  to  set  the  example  in  profane  and 
theological  researches,  whilst  it  watched  and  rewarded  the 
progress  of  science  in  all  the  seminaries  of  the  empire.1 

"  It  was  another  fortunate  circumstance,  that  this  empire 
was  so  widely  extended.  It  comprised  what  afterwards  be- 
came the  monarchy  of  France  ;  in  Spain,  the  four  provinces 
which  extend  from  the  Pyrenees  to  the  river  Ebro;  in  Italy, 
the  late  kingdom  of  the  Lombards,  from  the  Alps  to  the 
borders  of  Calabria  ;  in  Germany,  many  regions  from  the 
Rhine  to  the  Elbe;  and  to  the  south,  it  stretched  into  Pan- 
nonia,  or  the  modern  Hungary,  and  the  provinces  immediately 
bordering  on  the  confines  of  Greece.  Two-thirds  of  the 
former  western  empire  of  Rome  were  subject  to  Charlemagne; 
and  it  has  been  observed  that  the  deficiency  was  amply  sup- 
plied by  his  command  of  the  almost  inaccessible  and  martial 
nations  of  Germany,  whom  he  had  compelled  to  submit  to 
his  .sceptre  and  to  embrace  the  profession  of  Christianity. 
Among  the  latter  he  established  episcopal  sees,  where  cities 
were  founded;  and  schools  were  established  in  order  to  imbue 
the  minds  of  the  bai-barous  inhabitants  with  the  precepts  of 
religion  and  humanity.  And  in  all  parts  of  the  empire,  he 
had  reason  to  expect  an  active  co-operation  in  his  beneficent 
schemes  from  the  means  which  he  had  devised,  and  the  spirit 
which  he  had  infused.  Some  remains  of  learning  were  pre- 
served in  Rome,  and  in  certain  cities  of  Italy;  and  a  hope 
was  naturally  cherished  that  the  tree  of  science  would  again 
flourish  in  a  soil  so  congenial  with  its  growth.  And  would 
not  the  Roman  bishop,  the  first  minister  of  religion,  ardently 
embrace  a  scheme  in  which  the  best  interests  of  that  religion 
were  involved,  and  aspire  to  become,  with  his  royal  master, 
the  restorer  of  learning,  and  the  patron  of  the  learned  ?  His 
example  would  diffuse  the  emulation  of  literature  and  of 
science  amongst  the  prelates  of  the  church. 

"  Such  was  the  state  of  things,  and  such  for  a  moment  the 
glowing  perspective  of  what  was  about  to  be;  but  the  faint 
beams  of  a  wintery  sun  are  not  of  sufficient  intensity  or  con- 
tinuance to  dispel  the  mist,  to  warm  the  air,  and  give  new 
life  to  the  torpid  fibres  of  the  vegetable  world. 

"  The  want  of  success  in  the  strenuous  efforts  and  excel- 
lent establishments  of  Charlemagne  may  be  traced  to  various 
causes: — To  the  inaptitude  of  the  teachers,  who,  though 

1  Eginhard  ut  sup.  Alcuin,  Ep.  pass. 


104          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  774 

endowed  with  the  natural  powers  of  intellect,  knew  not  how 
to  excite  attention,  to  interest  curiosity,  or  to  rouse  into 
action  the  latent  capacities  of  the  mind.  To  the  subjects 
called  sciences,  or  the  seven  liberal  arts — grammar,  rhetoric, 
logic,  arithmetic,  geometry,  music,  and  astronomy — which 
were  so  taught  as  to  disgust  by  their  barbarous  elements; 
and  of  which  the  emaciated  and  haggard  skeleton  was  alike 
unfit  for  ornament  or  for  use.  To  the  absence  of  the  first 
rudiments  of  education,  as  of  reading  and  writing,  in  the 
higher  orders  of  society;  and  to  their  habitual  devotion  to 
martial  exercises,  and  amusements  which  kept  up  the  image 
of  war,  and  inured  them  to  its  dangers  and  its  toils.  These 
it  was  not  likely  that  they  would  be  allured  to  relinquish  by 
the  insipid  lectures  of  the  schools — to  the  oblivion  in  which 
the  classical  productions  of  former  ages  were  buried,  or  the 
disregard  in  which  they  were  held — to  a  want  of  capacity  in 
the  bishops,  clergy  and  monks,  upon  whom  the  weighty  charge 
of  education  had  devolved — to  a  selfish  reflection  in  the 
same  order  of  men,  that  in  proportion  to  the  decline  of  learn- 
ing and  the  spread  of  ignorance,  their  churches  and  monas- 
teries had  prospered;  whilst  the  revival  of  letters  was  likely  to 
divert  the  copious  streams  of  pious  benevolence  into  a  chan- 
nel less  favourable  to  the  interests  of  the  clergy  and  the 
monks.  To  a  marked  aversion  in  the  bishop  of  Home  to  any 
scheme  by  which  the  minds  of  churchmen,  or  of  others, 
might  be  turned  to  the  study  of  antiquity,  and  to  those  docu- 
ments which  would  disclose  on  what  futile  reasons  and  sandy 
foundations  the  exclusive  prerogatives  of  his  see  were  esta- 
blished. To  the  genius  of  the  Christian  system  itself,  which 
was  now  fortified  by  long  indurated  habits  and  maxims,  which, 
when  it  expelled  the  pagan  deities  from  their  seats,  too  suc- 
cessfully fixed  a  reproach  on  many  things  connected  with 
them;  and  thus  contributed  to  banish  from  the  schools,  and 
to  consign  to  oblivion,  those  works,  on  the  study  and  the 
prevalence  of  which  will  ever  depend  the  progress  of  the 
arts,  of  the  sciences,  and  of  literary  taste. 

"  To  these  causes — and  others,  local,  temporary,  or  per- 
sonal, which  might  be  enumerated — must  be  ascribed  that 
failure  which  the  great  scheme  of  Charlemagne  experienced. 
Hence  no  effect  followed  adequate  to  his  wishes:  to  the 
treasures  which  he  expended;  to  the  encouragement  which 
he  afforded;  or  to  the  brilliant  expectations  which  the  san- 


TO   1000.]  THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  CHARLEMAGNE.  105 

guine  entertained.  The  clergy  continued  to  be  oppressed  by 
the  same  supine  indifference;  the  same  intellectual  drowsiness 
was  seen  in  the  monks;  whilst  the  people  adhered  with  the 
same  fondness  or  clung  with  the  same  obstinacy  to  their 
habits  of  credulity  and  superstition.  But  still  sparks  of 
curiosity  were  excited,  which  must  have  been  productive  of 
some  intellectual  improvement:  and  it  is  but  just  to  own  that, 
though  the  sages  of  Charlemagne  drew  little  advantage  from 
them,  his  efforts  were  instrumental  in  providing  repositories 
for  the  sacred  and  profane  treasures  of  antiquity;  where  they 
were  in  some  measure  secured  from  the  further  ravages  of 
time,  and  whence  light  might  finally  be  derived  by  some 
future  generation." 

Such  was  the  view  which,  some  years  ago,  presented  itself 
to  my  inquiries;  and  I  see  no  reason  to  alter  the  opinion 
which  I  was  then  induced  to  form. 

After  his  inauguration,  Charlemagne,  having  spent  the 
months  of  winter  in  Rome,  returned  to  his  favourite  residence 
of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  where,  as  well  as  in  other  places  of  his 
dominions,  he  incessantly  laboured,  by  circular  letters,  by 
synods,  and  by  admonitions,  to  reform  the  accumulated 
abuses  in  church  and  state.  A  contemporary  writer1  thus 
describes  his  laudable  exertions:  "  Never,"  says  he,  "  did  he 
cease  from  exhorting  the  bishops  to  the  study  of  the  scrip- 
tures, the  clergy  to  the  observance  of  discipline,  the  monks  to 
regularity,  the  nobles  to  edify  by  good  example,  the  magi- 
strates to  justice,  the  warriors  to  arms,  those  in  office  to 
humility,  inferiors  to  obedience,  in  one  word,  all  to  virtue 
and  to  concord."  Probably,  from  the  general  barbarism  of 
the  times,  and  the  absence  of  real  attainments  in  himself,  he 
might  not  be  sensible  of  the  little  progress  Avhich  his  endea-- 
vours  made,  or  might  be  flattered  by  some  apparent  and 
transient  change.  However  this  may  be,  he  persevered  with 
undiminished  ardour,  and,  in  the  last  year  of  his  life,  he 
directed  five  synods  to  be  held  in  the  principal  cities  of  his 
Gaulish  dominions.  The  canons,  which  were  ordained  in 
these  meetings,  are  still  extant.  At  this  time,  only  Louis 
remained  of  his  three  sons,  to  whom  Charlemagne  be- 
queathed his  kingdoms,  with  the  title  of  Emperor;  and  having 
exhorted  him  "  to  honour  the  bishops  as  his  parents,  and  to 

1  Theod.  episc.  Aurelian.  in  Prsef.  ad  cajiit. 


106          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  774 

love  the  people  as  his  children,"  lie  died  in  the  beginning  of 
the  year  814,  leaving  behind  him  a  name  so  greatly  respected, 
that — though  his  own  plans,  as  I  have  observed,  were  not 
crowned  with  success — his  example  long  retained  a  powerful 
influence.  In  after  times  it  was  deemed  motive  enough  to 
sanction  any  undertaking,  in  which  the  promotion  of  letters 
might  be  concerned — that  Charlemagne  had  attempted  it,  or 
that  the  measure  had  formed  some  part  of  his  scheme. 

Some  years  before  the  death  of  his  master,  Alcuin  had 
obtained  permission  to  retire  to  his  monastery  of  St.  Martin 
in  the  city  of  Tours.  In  early  life  he  had  been  the  pupil  of 
Egbert,  archbishop  of  York;  who  was  himself  a  prelate  of 
learning,  and  the  patron  of  the  learned;  whilst,  by  opening  to 
the  perusal  of  his  scholars  a  library  which  he  had  collected, 
he  stimulated  curiosity,  and  supplied  the  means  of  improve- 
ment.1 That  the  talents  of  Alcuin  were  great,  will  not  be 
disputed;  nor  will  it  be  disputed  that  his  acquirements  were 
considerable,  when  compared  with  the  literary  attainments  of 
the  age.  It  has  been  objected  against  him,  that,  from  his 
own  propensities,  and  from  the  bias  which  he  gave  to  the 
mind  of  Charlemagne,  ecclesiastical  studies  were  alone  encou- 
raged; which  caused  those  of  literature  to  be  neglected,  with- 
out anything  being  done  to  bring  back  a  just  taste,  and  to 
promote  the  cultivation  of  the  modern  languages.  The  long 
list  of  his  works 2  comprises  chiefly  treatises  on  religion,  and 
other  associated  points.  But  nothing,  in  the  circle  of  human 
knowledge,  seems  to  have  escaped  him;  and  when  he  writes 
on  the  subjects  of  grammar  and  rhetoric;  when  he  lays  down 
rules  of  dialectics;  when  he  discourses  on  moral  duties;  or 
when,  relaxing  his  mind  from  higher  pursuits,  he  deigns  to 
be  a  poet,  that  is,  to  make  verses — we  may  presume  that 
some  of  his  admirers  would  be  induced  to  turn  to  those  better 
sources  from  which  Alcuin  had  derived  instruction,  and  to 
the  perusal  of  which  we  cannot  doubt  that  he  often  invited 
his  followers.  In  the  cultivation  of  modern  languages,  rude 
and  imperfect  as  those  languages  then  were,  we  cannot  be 
surprised  that  he  and  other  scholars  should  have  been  remiss. 
Latin  was  spoken  among  all  the  pretenders  to  science,  and 

1  Wil.  Malmesb.  de  Gest.  Pont.  Aug.  iii. 

2  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.     See  also  with  reference  to  Alcuin,  Dr.  Henry's  History 
of  England,  vol.  ii. ;  and  the  Histoirv  Littcraire  de  France,  the  4th,  5th, 
and  6th  vols.  of  which  contain  the  History  of  the  9th  and  10th  centuries. 


TO   1000.]  ECCLESIASTICAL  STUDIES.  107 

without  it,  neither  the  Saxon  Alcuin,  nor  the  learned  strangers 
who  crowded  round  the  court  of  Charlemagne,  could  have 
contributed  any  effectual  aid  to  his  schemes  of  improvement. 
It  is,  however,  related  of  the  prince  himself,  who  must  have 
conversed  principally  in  Latin,  that  he  directed  a  collection 
to  be  made  of  the  songs  of  the  ancient  bards  or  German  poets, 
both  to  inspire  a  love  of  composition,  and  to  perpetuate  their 
memories. 

On  the  subject  of  ecclesiastical  studies  I  wish  to  add,  that, 
if  they  were  so  much  encouraged  as  I  have  stated,  it  does  not 
therefore  follow  that  literature  was  utterly  neglected,  and 
nothing  done  to  revive  a  just  taste.  The  clergy  and  the 
monks  were  the  only  teachers,  because  they  only  had  learned. 
It  was,  therefore,  in  the  first  place,  necessary  to  give  a  due 
direction  to  their  minds;  to  excite  the  ardour  of  application; 
to  place  before  them  the  best  models  of  former  days,  in  the 
works  of  the  Jeroms,  the  Augustins,  the  Leos,  and  the  Grego- 
ries:  as  religion  would  thus  be  viewed  in  its  best  light,  the 
abuses  which  ignorance  had  introduced  be  corrected,  and 
the  intellectual  capacity  be  improved.  This  point  once 
gained,  what  remained  to  be  effected  in  the  departments  of 
literature  and  taste  would  have  followed,  in  due  time,  as  an 
easy  consequence.  I  think,  therefore,  that  the  plan  of  im- 
provement was  wisely  conceived. 

I  am,  however,  willing  to  allow,  that  the  merit  of  Alcuin 
consisted  chiefly  in  the  advice  which  he  gave  to  his  master; 
in  the  ardour  with  which  he  espoused  his  views;  in  the 
various  means  which  he  devised,  in  schools  and  seminaries, 
for  the  promotion  of  learning;  and  in  the  lectures  which  he 
often  delivered,  as  incitements  to  application.  Extravagance 
in  the  praises  of  his  contemporaries  may  be  pardoned;  but  in 
more  modern  writers,  if  they  had  read  his  works,  such  praises 
are  void  of  meaning.  "  His  erudition,"  they  sometimes  say,1 
"  was  singularly  great,  his  speech  elegant,  his  style  concise, 
simple,  pure:  in  prose  and  verse  he  was  equally  polished:  to 
the  knowledge  of  Latin  lie  joined  that  of  the  Greek  and 
Hebrew  languages;  and  he  was  a  complete  master  in  all 
mathematical,  philosophical,  and  theological  sciences." 

In  the  decline  of  life,  when  he  retired  to  Tours,  where 
he  enjoyed  an  interval  of  literary  case,  he  thus  detailed  his 
occupations  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Charlemagne,2  who  had 

1  Pits,  de  Illust.  Ang.  Scrip.  *  Gul.  Malm,  ut  ante. 


108          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  774 

earnestly  pressed  him  to  return  to  his  court:  "  As  you  advised 
me,  and  as  my  own  inclinations  lead,  I  am  sedulously  em- 
ployed within  these  walls  in  imparting  to  some,  instruction 
from  the  pot  of  the  holy  scriptures;  while  I  labour  to  inebriate 
others  with  the  old  wine  of  the  ancient  schools;  feed  others 
with  the  apples  of  grammatical  subtilty;  and  illumine  others 
with  the  arrangement  of  the  stars,  placed  as  in  the  painted 
ceiling  of  some  great  edifice.  This  I  do,  that,  by  the  acquire- 
ments of  learning,  the  church  may  prosper,  and  honour  be 
done  to  your  imperial  reign;  as  also  that  the  grace  of  heaven 
may  not  be  void  in  me,  nor  the  effects  of  your  beneficence  be 
lost."  He  laments,  however,  the  want  of  books;  mentions 
the  stores  which  he  enjoyed  in  his  own  country,  by  the 
liberal  industry  of  archbishop  Egbert ;  and  purposes,  if 
agreeable  to  his  majesty,  to  send  some  of  his  pupils,  who 
may  furnish  themselves  with  the  most  necessary  copies,  "  and 
thus  transplant  into  France  the  flowers  of  Britain."  Alcuin 
died  in  the  year  804,  leaving  behind  him  many  learned  men 
who  had  been  tutored  in  his  school,  and  many  works  on  a 
variety  of  subjects.1  His  pupils,  by  their  efforts,  preserved, 
though  only  in  a  slow  and  rippling  current,  the  continuity  of 
science;  and  his  works,  though  no  longer  read,  would  prove, 
if  they  were  perused,  the  ardour  of  his  zeal  to  revive  the 
love  of  letters  which  had  been  extinguished  by  the  gross 
barbarism  of  the  times. 

Among  the  other  sages  who  were  patronised  by  Charle- 
magne, and  connected  in  friendship  and  in  letters  with  Alcuin, 
were  Paulinus,  patriarch  of  Aquileia,  celebrated  for  his  vir- 
tues and  his  learning;  .Theodolphus,  bishop  of  Orleans,  a 
poet,  as  well  as  aAvriter  on  moral  subjects;  two  metropolitans 
of  Milan,  Peter  and  Odelbertus;  and,  to  abridge  a  list,  that 
might  be  crowded  with  many  names,  the  historian,  Paul 
Warnefrid,  otherwise  called  Paul  the  deacon,  and  the  biogra- 
pher Eginhard. 

Paul  was  educated  in  the  court,  and  held  important  offices 
under  the  last  of  the  Lombard  kings,  after  whose  fall  he 
joined  the  learned  society  in  the  suite  of  Charlemagne,  whose 
confidence  he  enjoyed;  and  afterwards  retired  to  Monte 
Casino.  If  we  could  give  credit  to  the  extravagant  enco- 
miums which  have  been  lavished  on  this  favoured  monk, 

1  See  Cave,  Hist.  Letter.;  Dupin,  Bib.  Eccles.  Bib.  Lat.  med.  cetat. 


TO  1000.]      PAULUS  DEACONUS. EGINHARD.  109 

neither  Athens  nor  Rome,  in  their  best  days,  could  produce 
anything  more  excellent. 

"  Graeca  cerneris  Homerus, 
Latina  Virgilius, 
la  Hebraea  quoque  Philo, 
Tertullus  in  artibus ; 
Flaccus  crederis  in  metris, 
Tibullus  eloquio." 

The  lines  were  addressed  to  him  in  the  name  of  Charle- 
magne. But  we  have  the  poet's  answer,  as  well  as  other 
specimens  of  his  talents,  from  which  a  more  accurate  judg- 
ment may  be  formed.  His  History  of  the  Lombard  Nation 
is  what,  I  believe,  has  alone  rescued  his  name  from  oblivion; 
and  thi.s,  whatever  may  be  its  defects  in  early  authenticity,  or 
in  style,  merits  our  commendation.  It  is  such  a  history  as 
could  alone  have  been  expected  in  the  times  in  which  it 
appeared,  and  it  contains  many  important  documents,  for 
which  we  might  elsewhere  search  in  vain.1 

The  Life  of  Charlemagne,  by  Eginhard,  his  friend  and 
confidential  secretary,  is  not  destitute  of  elegance  ;  but  it 
is  chiefly  valuable  as  a  record  of  facts,  of  many  of  which  he 
was  an  eye-witness,  and  it  exhibits  rather  a  partial  delineation 
of  the  character  of  his  master.  Eginhard  survived  Charle- 
magne many  years,  and  continued  to  serve  his  children,  as 
far  as  the  cares  of  the  monastic  life,  to  which,  agreeably  to 
the-  taste  of  the  age,  he  had  devoted  himself,  would  permit.2 
He  is  also  the  author  of  Annals  (rerum  Francoru)n\  which 
has  acquired  for  him,  in  character  and  in  priority  of  time,  the 
first  place  in  the  list  of  German  historians.3 

The  six  successors  of  the  royal  blood  of  Charlemagne,  who, 
during  the  greater  part  of  the  ninth  century,  filled  the  imperial 
throne,  did  but  little  to  carry  into  effect  the  wise  measures 
which  their  great  ancestor  had  projected.  Indeed,  it  was 
soon  manifest,  that  however  wise,  as  lias  been  observed,  those 
measures  might  have  been,  the  grossness  of  barbarism  was  at 
that  time  too  dense  to  be  dispersed.  Even  in  Italy,  where 
much  had  been  attempted,  and  where,  from  a  variety  of  pe- 

'   See  Her.  Itul.  Script,  i.  1.   Storia  della  Lett.  Ital.  iii.  Bib.  Lat.  mod. 
sctat. 
*  Bib.  Lut.  iiied.  artat.  3  Meusel's  Leitfaden,  580. 


110          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  774 

culiar  circumstances,  it  could  not  be  that  the  love  of  letters, 
particularly  in  the  ecclesiastical  order,  should  be  wholly 
extinct — no  permanent  good  had  been  produced. 

In  823,  Lotharius,  the  grandson  of  Charles,  published  an 
edict  for  the  erection  of  schools,  in  the  preface  to  which  he 
says:  "  In  regard  to  learning,  which,  by  the  negligence  and 
ignorance  of  certain  rulers,  has  been  in  all  places  completely 
lost,  it  has  seemed  good,  that  what  we  have  ordained  be 
everywhere  observed.  Let  the  masters,  appointed  by  us  to 
teach,  take  care  that  their  scholars  attend  to  their  instruc- 
tion, and  make  that  proficiency  which  the  times  demand. 
With  this  view,  and  in  order  that  neither  distance  of  place 
nor  distress  of  circumstances  be  an  excuse  to  any,  we  have 
fixed  on  such  cities  as  will  be  found  most  generally  conve- 
nient."1 He  then  names  the  cities,  which  are  nine,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  specifies  the  subordinate  towns  in  the  vicin- 
age, the  youth  of  which  are  to  repair  to  the  above  schools. 
At  the  head  of  them  is  Pavia.  But  this  provision  regards 
only  Lombardy,  or  what  was  then  called  the  kingdom  of 
Italy,  which  had  been  lately  conquered  by  Charlemagne. 

The  papal  states,  with  regard,  at  least,  to  their  internal 
regulations,  were  independent  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  so 
wrere  the  Venetian  provinces,  and  the  duchy  of  Benevento, 
which  latter  then  comprised  a  great  portion  of  the  kingdom 
of  Naples,  and  remained  subject  to  princes  of  the  Lombard 
family.  Nor  had  the  Greeks  as  yet  wholly  quitted  Italy. 
Naples,  and  Gaeta,  and  much  of  Calabria,  either  submitted 
to  the  Byzantine  throne,  or  paid  a  certain  tribute  as  an 
acknowledgment  of  its  sovereignty;  whilst  the  Saracens,  who 
were  now  masters  of  Sardinia,  and  soon  added  Sicily  to  their 
conquests,  often  landed  on  the  Italian  coast,  pillaging  its 
cities,  and  carrying  their  inhabitants  into  slavery. 

What  the  active  exertions  of  Charlemagne  could  not  effect, 
could  not  well  be  expected  from  the  edicts  of  his  successors. 
The  law  of  Lotharius  provided  schools,  and,  if  salaries 
were  appointed  by  him,  masters  also  would  be  found;  but 
talents  and  taste  would  still  be  wanting,  and  the  call  of  the 
prince,  when  addressed  to  the  listlessness  of  indolence,  would 
be  heeded  by  few.  Indeed,  all  the  annals  of  the  times  prove 
that  nothing  was  done;  unless  it  may  be  thought  something, 

»  Ap.  Scrip.  Eer.  Ital.  i.  2. 


TO  1000.]  STATE  OF  LEARNING  IN  ROME.  Ill 

that  about  the  same  time,  under  Eugenius  II.,  a  Roman 
council  was  induced  to  turn  its  attention  to  the  same  subject. 
Having  observed  that,  in  many  places,  there  were  no  masters, 
and  that  all  studies  were  neglected,  the  fathers  assembled 
decree:1  "  Therefore,  let  care  be  taken,  that  wherever  a 
necessity  shall  appear,  teachers  be  appointed,  who  shall  assi- 
duously give  instructions  on  the  study  of  letters  and  the 
liberal  arts,  as  also  on  the  holy  doctrines  of  religion." 

Was  this  decree  more  successful?  When  we  look  to 
Rome  and  her  bishops,  without  admitting,  in  all  their  lati- 
tude, the  statements  of  the  papal  biographer,2  it  will  be  rea- 
dily acknowledged,  that  superior  acquirements  generally 
graced  the  successors  of  St.  Peter.  But  the  knowledge 
which  they  possessed  was  chiefly  ecclesiastical;  and  the  wide 
sphere  of  administration  which  now  more  than  ever  occupied 
their  attention,  allowed  but  little  leisure  for  pursuits  which 
were  comparatively  of  less  attractive  interest.  And  that  the 
same  barbarism  which  was  visible  in  all  the  writings  of  the 
age  had  equally  infected  the  first  ministers  of  religion,  is 
manifested  in  the  numerous  epistolary  specimens  which  have 
come  down  to  us.3  Eugenius  II.,  indeed,  as  we  have  just 
seen,  aware  of  the  low  ebb  to  which  learning  was  reduced, 
joined  his  synod  in  an  attempt  to  revive  some  attention  to 
letters,  but  it  was  of  no  avail;  whilst  we  know  what  use  was 
made  of  the  general  ignorance,  in  order  to  give  currency  and 
validity  to  the  supposed  authenticity  of  certain  documents, 
by  which  the  prerogative  of  the  Roman  see  was  to  be  ex- 
tended; but  which  the  penetration  of  a  just  criticism  has  long 
since  pronounced  to  be  spurious.  The  design  of  these  fic- 
titious compositions  was,  to  show,  that  all  the  power  which 
was  in  that  period  assumed  by  the  pontiffs  was  founded  on 
the  acts  of  ancient  councils,  and  the  dogmatical  epistles  of 
their  early  predecessors ;  and  if  any  proof  of  the  grossest 
ignorance,  or  of  the  most  fixed  apathy,  were  wanting,  it 
might  be  hence  adduced,  that  such  palpable  fictions  were 
generally  received  without  being  examined,  or,  if  examined, 
that  the  fraud  remained  undetected. 

While  Italy,  and,  what  is  more,  while  Rome,  in  the  pre- 
sence of  her  exquisite  monuments  of  taste,  was  sinking  daily 

1   Baron.  Aunal.  Eccles.  ad.  an.  826. 

*  Anast.  Bibliothec.  Vitae.  Rom.  Pontif.  inter  Scrip.  Ker.  Ital.  iii.  1. 

3  See  Cone.  Gen.  pasai/n. 


112          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [>.D.  774 

deeper  and  deeper  into  the  gulph  of  barbarism — it  could  not 
be  expected,  that  a  brighter  prospect  would  elsewhere  be  dis- 
closed. Yet  in  all  the  regions  subject  to  the  new  imperial 
control,  the  successors  of  Charles  pursued  the  steps  of  their 
great  progenitor.  In  France  and  in  Germany  we  read  of 
schools  which  were  either  erected  by  their  munificence,  or 
renovated  by  their  zeal;  of  the  masters  whom  they  procured; 
and  of  the  bishops  and  many  abbots  who  cheerfully  co- 
operated1 in  the  good  work.  Yet  I  feel  not  here  the  same 
disappointment.  Barbarians,  it  is  true,  had  overrun  and 
conquered  those  provinces,  of  the  same  stock  as  that  which 
had  overrun  and  conquered  Italy  with  its  capital;  but  litera- 
ture and  the  arts  had  at  no  time  flourished  among  them  as  in. 
the  better  soil  of  Italy.  In  this  more  favoured  region  innu- 
merable monuments  remained  which  necessarily  kept  alive 
the  recollection  of  former  days;  the  language  of  Cicero,  of 
Livius,  of  Virgil,  embalmed  in  their  respective  works,  was 
still  understood  and  spoken;  and  in  the  veins  of  many,  the 
same  blood,  though  someAvhat  contaminated,  continued  to 
flow.2  If  these  incitements  to  regeneration,  powerful  in 
themselves,  and  powerfully  aided  by  the  zeal  of  Charlemagne, 
were  without  effect,  can  we  be  surprised  that,  in  the  less 
favourable  circumstances  of  other  countries,  the  reign  of  bar- 
barism was  irresistibly  triumphant?  Some  repetition  must 
be  pardoned. 

Perhaps  I  have  not  sufficiently  dwelt  on  the  licentious 
manners  of  the  times,  which,  infecting  all  orders  in  the  church 
and  state,  produced  a  general  distaste  for  serious  occupations, 
and  made  letters  an  object  of  contempt.  On  this  subject,  the 
complaints  of  the  most  candid  and  impartial  writers  are  una- 
nimous and  loud.  The  bishops  often  passed  their  lives  in 
the  splendour  of  courts,  and  the  bosom  of  luxurious  indo- 
lence; the  inferior  clergy,  in  proportion  as  their  circumstances 
would  admit,  copied  the  behaviour  of  their  superiors;  and  we 
need  not  detail  what,  under  this  corrupt  influence,  were  the 
manners  of  the  people.  The  riches  which  flowed  in  such 
copious  streams  into  the  church  were,  in  part,  the  cause  of 
these  evils;  while  the  higher  clergy,  in  consequence  of  the 
possessions  which  they  held  by  feudal  tenure,  were  bound  to 

1  See  Brucker,  Hist.  Phil.  iii. 

s  See  on  the  state  of  literature  in  Italy,  the  43rd  Dissertation  of  Mura- 
tori,  Autiq.  Ital.  Medii  M\L  viii. 


TO  1000.]    CONVERSION  OF  BARBAROUS  NATIONS.        113 

perform  certain  services,  and  even,  at  times,  to  take  the  field 
at  the  head  of  their  retainers.  Thus  acting  in  a  sphere 
which  was  not  at  all  consistent  with  their  ecclesiastical 
duties,  they  soon  began  to  regard  them  with  contempt,  and 
their  minds  became  completely  secularized.  We  hear  of 
many  churchmen  whose  ignorance  was  extreme.  Could  they 
read  with  a  certain  fluency  a  passage  in  the  Latin  Bible,  it 
was  thought  that  they  might  be  useful  to  the  people:  to  un- 
derstand the  same  passage  argued  a  superior  mind;  yet  in 
this  order  alone  was  concentrated  all  the  learning,  small  as  it 
was,  which  the  age  could  boast.  To  correct  its  depravity, 
and.  if  possible,  to  divert  the  minds  of  men  to  better  pursuits, 
the  emperors  issued  edicts,  synods  promulgated  decrees,  and 
good  men  raised  their  voices  in  admonitions  and  remon- 
strances. But  the  torrent  of  ignorance  was  too  impetuous  to 
be  repressed. 

As  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  wherever  its  influence  is  felt, 
has  a  direct  tendency  to  soften  the  ferocity  of  the  human 
character,  and  by  fostering  the  kindly  habits  of  social  life  to 
prepare  it  for  the  admission  of  intellectual  improvements,  we 
are  gratified,  in  reading  the  annals  of  these  times,  to  dis- 
cover that  many  nations,  particularly  in  the  north  of  Europe, 
were  reclaimed  from  the  errors  of  heathenism;  for,  notwith- 
standing the  evidence  of  general  ignorance  which  the  pre- 
ceding pages  have  established,  and  in  which  the  principal 
realms  of  the  west,  confessedly  Christian,  were  sunk,  it  must 
still  be  owned  that  their  conversion  was,  at  least,  one  step 
towards  a  state  of  higher  civilization.  In  the  last  century, 
many  tribes  of  Germans  had  been  converted  by  our  country- 
man Winfrid,  better  known  by  the  name  of  Boniface;  and 
some  years  later,  Charlemagne  had  compelled  the  Saxons — 
who  peopled  a  large  portion  of  the  German  territory — with 
the  sword  at  their  throats,  to  enter  the  Christian  pale.  But 
in  order  to  assist  in  mitigating  their  ferocity,  in  reconciling 
them  to  their  new  faith,  and  inducing  them  to  submit  gradu- 
ally to  his  government,  he  appointed  ecclesiastical  ministers 
to  reside  amongst  them;  and  he  erected  schools,  and  founded 
monasteries,  that  the  means  of  instruction  might  be  every- 
where diffused.  It  is  related  that  he  had  recourse  to  the 
•same  precautions  among>t.  the  Huns  of  Pannonia,  who  were 
a  still  more  fierce  and  untractable  rare,  whom  lie  had  also 
converted  to  the  faith,  when,  exhausted  and  depressed  by  a 


114          LITEEAEY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  774 

series  of  defeats,  they  were  no  longer  able  to  make  head 
against  his  victorious  arms,  and  chose  rather  to  be  Christians 
than  to  be  slaves. 

In  the  present  century,  the  gospel  continued  to  be  propa- 
gated under  the  successors  of  Charles.  The  Swedes,  Danes, 
and  Cumbrians  received  the  faith;  while,  more  to  the  north- 
east of  Europe,  the  Bulgarians,  Sclavonians,  and  Russians 
were  visited  by  preachers  of  the  Greek  church.  They  listened 
to  their  instructions,  and  admitted  the  common  faith;  but 
with  it  the  discipline  and  jurisdiction  of  Byzantium.1 

Some  compensation  was  thus  made  to  the  Christian  church 
for  its  losses  by  the  overwhelming  success  of  the  Arabian 
arms;  and  as  Christianity  should  be  more  extensively  diffused, 
the  northern  converts  would  be  softened  by  its  mild  influence, 
and  prepared  for  the  further  improvements  of  civilized  life. 
It  is  an  observation,  founded  on  the  evidence  of  facts,  that,  in 
the  revolutions  of  modern  Europe,  the  progress  of  barbarism 
and  conquest  has  been  from  the  north  ;  whilst  the  southern 
nations,  which  have  been  overrun,  have  in  return  presented 
to  them  civilization  for  rudeness,  and  arts  for  arms. 

In  the  dreary  gloom  of  general  apathy  and  ignorance  in 
which  we  are  enveloped,  I  must  not  omit  to  mention  the  name 
of  Rabanus  Maurus,  a  native  of  Germany,  and  a  monk  of  the 
abbey  of  Fulda,  whose  celebrity  was,  in  a  great  measure,  owing 
to  the  instructions  of  Alcuin.  From  him  it  is  said  that  he 
received  the  name  of  Maurus  (a  name  of  dignity  in  the  Bene- 
dictine order,)  as  it  was  his  usual  practice,  when  he  had  a 
scholar  whose  talents  he  admired,  and  whose  emulation  he 
wished  to  inflame,  to  signalize  him  by  the  appellation  of  some 
ancient  worthy,  who  was  distinguished  by  his  literary  acquire- 
ments, or  his  moral  qualities.  He  gave  to  Angelbert,  who 
sometimes  wrote  verses  which  pleased  him,  the  title  of 
Homer,  and  to  Charlemagne  that  of  David.  Rabanus  was  the 
chief  teacher  in  his  monastery,  where  he  united  the  lessons 
of  profane  science  to  the  study  of  the  scriptures  ;  and  his 
school  became  so  celebrated,  that  the  superiors  of  convents, 
in  distant  provinces,  sent  their  pupils  to  be  initiated  in  its 
discipline;  and  the  children  of  the  nobility  were  seen  crowd- 
ing to  Fulda.  "  As  the  age  of  his  pupils  permitted,  or  their 
abilities  seemed  to  require,  he  instructed  some  in  the  rules  of 

i  See  Mosheim,  Fleury,  and  the  authors  quoted  by  them. 


TO  1000.]  RABANUS  MAURUS ERIGENA.  115 

grammar,  others  in  those  of  rhetoric;  whilst  he  conducted  the 
more  advanced  into  the  deeper  researches  of  human  and  divine 
philosophy,  freely  communicating  whatever  they  wished  to 
learn.  At  the  same  time,  they  were  expected  to  commit  to 
writing,  in  prose  or  verse,  the  occurrences  of  the  day,"  l  or 
rather,  probably  the  substance  of  his  lectures.  Thus  laudably 
treading  in  the  steps  of  Alcuin,  Rabanus  perpetuated  his 
master's  fame;  and  the  seminary  of  Fulda,  as  we  are  told,  pro- 
duced the  majority  of  those  who,  in  the  ninth  century,  in 
Germany  and  Gaul,  reflected  any  light  on  the  literature  of 
the  age.  Rabanus  was  afterwards  raised  to  the  see  of  Mentz, 
which  he  adorned  by  his  virtues,  as  he  had  Fulda  by  his 
learning  ;  and  where  he  died  about  the  year  856,  with  the 
general  opinion,  "  that  Italy  had  not  seen  his  like,  nor  Ger- 
many produced  his  equal."2 

The  other  principal  schools  were  those  of  the  two  Corbeys, 
in  Gaul  and  Germany,  and  of  Rheims  and  Liege. 

The  social  intercourse  and  scientific  communication  which 
had  subsisted  between  Charlemagne  and  Alcuin  were  renewed 
between  his  grandson  Charles  the  Bald,  king  of  France,  and 
afterwards  emperor,  and  our  countryman  John  Erigena,  by 
some  deemed  a  native  of  Wales,  by  others  of  Scotland,  and 
by  others,  perhaps  with  more  probability,  of  Erin  or  Ireland. 
However  this  may  be,  the  fame  of  his  talents  and  learning 
having  reached  the  ears  of  Charles,  he  was  invited  by  him  to 
his  court,  where  his  wit  and  endowments  procured  him  the 
esteem  of  his  master,  and  the  superintendence  of  the  schools.3 
He  is  said  to  have  possessed  the  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  Arabic 
languages;  and  some  accounts,  which  are  not  entitled  to  much 
credit,  are  given  of  his  travels  into  distant  countries.  I  think 
it  more  probable  that  he  was  indebted  to  his  own  genius  and 
exertions,  rather  than  to  the  schools,  as  is  pretended,  of  Alex- 
andria and  Athens  ;  and  if  we  could  calculate  the  sum  of  his 
acquirements,  we  should  find  their  magnitude  to  have  arisen 
from  the  comparative  ignorance  of  his  contemporaries.  Acute 
in  intellect,  and  subtle  in  disputation,  he  engaged  in  the  pre- 
destinarian  controversy  against  Gotteschalc,  and  afterwards 
translated  from  the  Greek,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  king,  the 
mystical  works  of  the  pseudo  Dionysius,  at  that  time  deemed 

1  Trithpmins,  Annul.  Hirsau<?.  i.  ap.  Brucker,  iii. 

2  Ibid.  See  also  (Jave,  Hist.  Litter.     Bib.  Lat.  med.  setat. 
8  Uuil.  Malm,  de  Gest.  lleg.  Aug.  ii. 

i  2 


116          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  774 

the  genuine  productions  of  the  Athenian  Areopagite.  It  has 
been  a  subject  of  regret,  that  doctrines  were  by  this  means 
introduced  into  the  western  church  which  tended  to  bewilder 
the  mind  into  a  labyrinth  of  difficulties,  and  to  perplex  the 
simplicity  of  the  Christian  faith.  The  labours  of  Erigena, 
though  applauded  by  his  admirers,  did  not  even  then  escape 
censure.  The  chaotic  obscurities  of  the  Alexandrian  school 
were  rendered  still  more  impenetrable  by  the  obscurities  of 
this  translation;  but  it  was  this  circumstance  which  rendered 
them  an  object  of  devout  attention  and  disputatious  interest. 
The  pride  of  superficial  ignorance  appeared  to  be  gratified  by 
mysterious  speculations,  which  passed  under  the  name  of 
oriental  philosophy,  which  had  been  generated  in  Asia,  adopted 
by  Plato,  nourished  in  Egypt,  and  endeared  to  the  schools 
of  Greece;  and  so  captivated  was  Erigena,  that,  having  com- 
pleted his  translation,  he  sat  down  to  an  original  work.  This 
he  entitled,  On  the  Nature  of  Things,  which  nature  he  divides 
into  that  "which  creates,  and  is  not  created;  that  which  is 
created,  and  creates;  that  which  is  created,  and  doth  create; 
and  that  which  neither  creates,  nor  is  created."  Under  these 
heads  he  comprises  all  things,  mixing  sacred  with  profane, 
•and  heaping  paradox  on  paradox,  from  which,  however,  this 
general  doctrine  is  deduced — that,  as  all  things  originally 
were  contained  in  God,  and  proceeded  from  him  into  the 
different  classes,  by  which  they  are  now  distinguished,  so 
shall  they  finally  return  to  him,  and  be  resolved  into  the 
source  from  which  they  came;  in  other  words,  that,  as  before 
the  world  was  created  there  was  no  being  but  God,  and  the 
causes  of  all  things  were  in  him ;  so,  after  the  end  of  the 
Avorld,  there  will  be  no  being  but  God,  and  the  causes  of  all 
things  in  him.  This  final  resolution  he  elsewhere  denomi- 
nates deification,  or  in  the  Greek  language,  which  he  affected 
to  use,  9««><nr. 

Nothing  like  this  had  before  been  presented  to  the  ears  of 
western  scholars;  and,  as  if  was  pretended  to  be  derived  from 
the  deep  recesses  of  the  most  ancient  schools,  we  cannot  be 
surprised  that  it  was  received  by  many  with  awful  admira- 
tion. That  it  should  have  gained  the  attention  of  Charles 
and  his  Gaulish  courtiers,  is  a  fact  not  void  of  interest  to 
those  who  are  fond  of  scrutinizing  the  anomalous  propensities 
of  the  human  mind.  The  doctrine  itself,  indeed,  was  taken, 
as  I  observed,  from  the  Platonists,  and  chiefly  from  the  works 


TO  1000.]  JOHN  EEIGENA.  117 

which  Erigena  had  translated.1  He  wrote  another  Treatise 
on  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,  which,  though  now  lost,, 
excited  much  controversy  in  a  later  age. 

The  learning  of  Erigena,  however  extolled,  escaped  not 
the  animadversion  of  Koine,  to  which  he  was  cited;  but  the 
Bibliothecarian  Anastasius  thus  expressed  himself,2  in  an  ad- 
dress to  his  patron  Charles:  "  I  am  astonished,  that  a  barba- 
rian, placed  at  the  extremity  of  the  world,  as  remote  from  the 
conversation  of  men  as  from  all  knowledge,  it  should  seem, 
of  a  foreign  tongue,  should  have  been  able  to  understand,  and 
to  translate,  the  works  of  a  Greek  father.  I  allude  to  John, 
that  Scottish  man,  who,  as  I  also  hear,  is  famed  for  piety.  If 
so,  it  must  be  the  work  of  the  divine  spirit,  which  first  in- 
flamed his  mind  with  the  love  of  virtue,  and  then  bestowed 
on  him  the  gift  of  tongues."  Anastasius,  who,  as  we  know 
from  his  life,  was  versed  in  Greek,  had  probably  experienced 
more  than  common  difficulty  in  the  acquirement;  but  his 
ignorance  was  gross,  if  he  did  not  know  that,  at  that  extre- 
mity of  the  world,  which  he  pretends  to  ridicule,  there  were,, 
at  this  period,  schools  not  less  renowned  than  those  of  Italy;, 
and  a  moment's  recollection  would  have  told  him,  that,  in  the 
preceding  century,  the  Saxon  Bede  had  been  invited,  in  order 
to  aiford  his  intellectual  aid  in  the  exigencies  of  the  Roman 
see;  and  that,  a  few  years  later,  the  prerogative  of  that  see 
was  supported,  and  its  claims  extended,  by  the  zeal  and  learn- 
ing of  the  Saxon  Wilfrid.3 

Whatever  might  be  the  censures  to  which  the  wild  theories 
of  Erigena  justly  exposed  their  author,  he  forfeited  not  the 
friendship  of  Charles;  but  after  his  death,  in  877,  we  are  told 
that  he  returned  to  England,  where  he  experienced  a  treat- 
ment equally  flattering  from  a  protector  who  was  no  less  kind 
and  able. 

Before  I  mention  who  this  protector  was,  I  wish  to  ob- 
serve, that  the  various  controversies  in  which  many  members 
of  the  Latin  church  were  engaged  during  the  course  of  this 
century,  though  they  disturbed  its  internal  peace  were  not 
void  of  some  good  effects,  as  they  roused  the  mind  into 

1  See  Dnpin,  Bib.  Eccles.  0,  and  particularly  the  learned  Brucker,  iii.  also 
Bib.  Lni.  iiu'il.  ,1'tnl. 

2  See  Cave,  Hist.  Lit. 

3  Anastasiiis,  who  lived   nt    this  time,  is  Ihe  author,  or  compiler,  of  the 
Hislnria  >l<   rilix  Jfmn.  Pmitif.  called  also  Liber  Pontijicalis. 


118          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  774 

action,  and  exercised  its  powers.  The  controversies  on  pre- 
destination, grace,  and  free-will,  provoked  the  utmost  sub- 
tlety of  discussion ;  nor  was  less  activity  of  mind  produced  by 
the  various  and  animated  disputes  which  occupied  the  life  of 
Hincmar — the  celebrated  archbishop  of  Rheims,  and  the  first 
ecclesiastical  scholar  of  the  age — sometimes  with  the  members 
of  his  own  church,  and  often  with  the  Roman  court,  the  en- 
croachments of  which  he  strenuously  opposed.  A  similar 
effect  was  observable  in  the  litigation  on  the  subject  of  the 
Eucharist,  provoked  by  the  Treatise  of  Paschasius  Radbertus; 
and  the  contest  with  Photius,  the  Byzantine  patriarch,  in 
which  it  was  necessary,  in  defending  the  doctrine  and  dis- 
cipline of  the  Latins,  to  recur  to  ancient  tradition,  and  to 
meet  the  bold  assertions  of  an  experienced  adversary.1 
Those  individuals  whom  the  pride  of  singularity,  the  love  of 
truth,  the  eagerness  of  disputation,  or  the  hope  of  triumph, 
engaged  in  these  controversies,  evinced  no  small  vigour  of 
thought,  or  acuteness  of  perception,  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
subject,  which  was  sufficiently  comprehensive;  but  they  were 
deficient  in  critical  taste  and  discrimination,  without  which 
the  most  learned  disquisitions,  though  they  may  sometimes 
convince,  can  never  please.  The  works  even  of  Hincmar, 
though  of  infinite  value  to  the  ecclesiastical  antiquary,  betray 
all  the  defects  of  a  gross  age;  and  a  comparison  of  those 
works,  in  style,  in  diction,  and  arrangement,  with  the  writ- 
ings of  his  contemporary,  the  Constantinopolitan  Photius, 
would  show,  at  one  view,  the  distinct  characters  of  their  re- 
spective schools,  and  the  decided  inferiority  of  those  of  the 
western  church.  In  Photius  we  have  a  polite  scholar, 
whose  taste,  which  was  formed  on  the  best  models  of  anti- 
quity, is  perceptible  in  every  subject  that  engages  his  pen; 
while  Hincmar,  equal  in  natural  powers,  but  chastened  by  no 
discipline,  and  only  rich,  though  immensely  rich,  in  the  trea- 
sures of  ecclesiastical  research,  like  a  heavy- armed  warrior, 
oppresses  by  his  weight;  but  displays  no  art,  no  agility,  no 
elegance.  The  first  may  still  interest  the  learned  leisure  of 
the  scholar;  and  the  laborious  theologian  may  consult  the 
other,  when  he  is  desirous  of  tracing  the  controversies  of  the 
ninth  century,  and  the  stages  of  its  discipline. 

The  immortal  Alfred  became  the  friend  and  patron  of 

1  See  on  those  Controversies  the  Ecclesiastical  Writers. 


TO  1000.]  KING  ALFRED.  119 

John  Erigena,  on  his  return  to  Britain.  Alfred  had  been 
seated  on  the  throne  since  the  year  871;  but,  owing  to  the 
troubles  caused  by  the  Danish  invaders,  he  was  soon  after- 
wards reduced  to  extreme  distress;  and  some  years  passed 
before  his  power  was  firmly  established,  and  he  had  leisure 
to  turn  his  thoughts  to  the  domestic  concerns  of  the  state, 
His  early  education  had  been  neglected;  but  he  had  twice 
visited  Rome,  the  view  of  whose  majestic  monuments  had 
probably  contributed  to  expand  the  sentiments  of  a  mind, 
which  was  naturally  elevated.  After  his  return,  we  soon 
find  him  engaged  in  the  recital  of  Saxon  poems,  and  thence 
proceeding  to  the  study  of  the  Latin  tongue. 

When  this  great  king  had  restored  public  tranquillity,  and 
formed  such  institutions,  civil  and  military,  as  were  judged 
most  proper  to  promote  security,  to  encourage  industry,  and 
to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  those  calamities  which  had  so 
long  desolated  the  country — we  accompany  him  with  pleasure 
in  the  occupations  of  a  legislator,  and  in  the  measures  which 
he  adopted,  with  no  less  wisdom,  for  the  revival  of  letters. 
On  his  accession,  as  the  historians  relate,  he  found  the 
English  people  sunk  into  the  grossest  ignorance.  The  mo- 
nasteries, which  were  then  the  only  seats  of  learning,  were 
destroyed,  the  monks  dispersed,  their  libraries  burnt;  and  he 
was  heard  to  lament,  that,  south  of  the  Thames,  he  knew 
not  one  person  who  could  interpret  the  Latin  service;  and 
very  few,  in  the  north,  who  had  this  degree  of  literary  pro- 
ficiency. 

Having  provided  the  situations  which  seemed  most  conve- 
nient, in  the  towns  and  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  repaired 
monasteries,  he  collected  such  men  of  learning  as  were  dis- 
persed within  the  realm;  and.  by  the  allurement  of  high 
salaries,  he  attracted  scholars  from  abroad.  At  this  period  he 
was  joined  by  John  Erigena.  But  though  the  means  of  in- 
struction were  ready,  no  general  inclination  was  manifested; 
and  we  therefore  read  of  a  law,  by  Avhich  all  freeholders, 
possessed  of  two  hides  of  land  or  more,  were  enjoined  to 
send  their  children  to  school;  and,  in  order  to  supply  a  still 
more  powerful  inducement,  he  promised  preferment,  whether 
in  church  or  state,  to  such  only  as  should  have  made  some 
proficiency  in  learning. 

Among   the  various   schools   which  were  established  by 


120          LITERACY  HISTOBV  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [.i.D. 

Alfred,  that  of  Oxford  i.s  said  to  have  been  founded,  or,  at 
least,  to  have  been  renovated  by  him;  and  he  endowed  it 
with  many  privileges,  immunities,  and  revenues.  The  ex- 
ample of  the  prince,  as  it  ever  happens,  was  soon  foil- 
by  the  nobility.  They  also  erected  schools;  and  as  Alfred 
•was  seen  to  delight  in  the  society  of  learned  men,  the  same 
society  became  the  fashionable  appendage  of  persons  in  the 
highest  rank.  By  these  and  similar  expedients,  a  happy 
change  became  gradually  more  apparent;  and  Alfrc-d  had 
reason  to  congratulate  himself  on  the  improvement  which  he 
had  produced  in  the  habits  of  his  people. 

The  assiduity  with  which  this  incomparable  prince,  in  the 
midst  of  his  public  avocations,  pursued  his  literary  labou. 
almost  incredible.  His  time  was  divided  into  three  equal 
portions;  and  of  these,  a  third  was  given  to  study  and  devo- 
tion. While  men  of  secondary  talents  were  employed  by 
him  in  making  English  versions  of  such  authors  as  were  likely 
to  prove  most  useful,  he  himself,  in  original  compositions,  or 
in  translations,  laboured  to  add  to  the  stock  of  national  im- 
provement, and  to  stimulate  the  desire  of  intellectual  culti- 
vation. Instead  of  general  precepts,  Alfred  endeavoured  to 
enliven  his  moral  lessons  by  apologues  or  fabl'--:  some  of 
which  were  taken  from  former  Saxon  compositions,  and  others 
the  fruit  of  his  own  invention,  "  written  with  elegance,  and  a 
playful  amenity."  He  is  even  said  to  have  translated  the 
Fables  of  JEsop  from  the  Greek:  but  we  may  place  more  re- 
liance on  the  report,  that  he  was  the  author  of  the  Saxon 
translations  of  the  Histories  of  Orosius  and  Bede,  and  of 
Boetius  on  the  Consolation  of  Philosophy. 

It  cannot  be  proved,  nor  would  it  be  material  to  discuss, 
whether  these  and  other  works,  though  ascribed  to  the  royal 
scholar,  were  not  rather  the  productions  of  the  Cambrian 
Asserius,  who  has  written  the  History  of  his  reign— or  of 
John  Erigena,  who  was  appointed  to  regulate  the  studies  at 
Oxford — or  of  some  other  of  the  many  learned  natives  who 
were  patronized  by  his  liberality.  The  talents  of  the  mo- 
narch were  more  than  adequate  to  the  labour  to  which  his  name 
is  affixed;  and  we  know  that  he  encouraged  the  people  by 
his  example,  in  all  pursuits  which  were  calculated  to  im- 
prove their  manners,  and  to  forward  the  best  int- 
society.  On  all  sides,  a  spirit  of  industry  prevailed;  and, 
under  the  hands  of  able  workmen,  new  edifices  were  seen  to 


TO   1000.]  SAXON  SCHOOLS.  121 

rise,  while  the  ruined  cities,  castles,  palaces,  and  monasteries 
were  rebuilt  and  beautified. 

Contemporaries,  foreigners,  and  natives,  repeating  the  long 
catalogue  of  his  moral  virtues  and  mental  endowments,  re- 
garded Alfred  as  the  greatest  prince  who,  after  Charlemagne, 
had  appeared  in  Europe;  and  posterity  has  ratified  the  en- 
comiums which  they  pronounced.  If  then,  whilst  Charle- 
magne was  on  the  throne,  the  century  opened  with  that  pros- 
pect which  I  described  as  so  auspicious  to  Europe,  it 
closed,  within  a  narrower  oi'bit,  no  less  prosperously  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Britain.  Alfred  died  in  the  year  901.' 

In  turning  over  the  valuable  pages  of  the  learned  Muratori, 
I  was  soini'what  surprised  to  read — in  a  Dissertation'1  on  the 
State  of  Literature  in  Italy  at  this  period — the  high  commen- 
dation which  he  bestows  on  the  schools  of  our  island,  when 
it  is  known  how  low  their  condition  was  before  the  days  of 
Alfred.  He  is  speaking  of  Dnngal,  a  native,  as  was  sup- 
•d,  of  Scotland,  who  was  chosen  by  the  emperor  Lotha- 
rius  to  preside  over  the  studies  at  Pavia.  The  incident,  he 
thinks,  shows  how  great  the  dearth  of  masters  was  among 
hi^  own  countrymen;  and  he  asks,  why  recourse  was  not 
rather  had  to  Gaul,  than  to  so  remote  a  country?  "  I  have 
already  shown,"  he  replies,  "  that  Gaul  herself  was  in  want 
of  foreign  aid.  Nor  should  praise  be  withheld  from  Britain, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland,  which,  at  this  time,  in  the  career  of 
letters,  surpassed  the  other  realms  of  the  west;  and  that 
chiefly  by  the  labour  of  the  monks,  who,  while  learning  else- 
where lay  languid  and  depressed,  vigorously  encouraged  and 
upheld  its  cause.  That  in  Gaul  the  pursuits  of  science  were 
revived,  and  schools  opened,  was  owing  to  the  Saxon  Alcuin; 
and  Italy  confessed  her  obligations  to  him,  and  to  his  country- 
men." 

The  passage  is  flattering,  and  may  not  be  untrue  as  far  as 
it  applies  to  the  few  individuals  whom  he  names;  but  his 
general  statement  of  the  flourishing  condition  of  our  learning 
cannot  be  admitted.  South  of  the  Thames,  observed  Alfred, 
I  knew  not  one  person  who  could  interpret  the  Latin  service, 

1  SCP,  on  the  HfV  of  Alfred,  tin-  old  Knglisli  historians  ]mrticul;irlv 
Assrriiis  M,-in-u-UM-s  />,  ri-lins  (irxtis  Al/rnl.  Also  Lchilul,  JJi:  Si-rip.  Hrit. 
who  is  very  copi. 

*  Antiij.  Itul.  Mi-d.  :evi  Dissr: 


122          LITERAKY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  774 

and  very  few  in  the  north  who  had  this  degree  of  profi- 
ciency. 

Having  expressed  his  high  obligations  to  our  countrymen, 
the  learned  Italian  proceeds  to  specify  a  signal  favour,  be- 
stowed by  the  Pavian  professor  Dungal,  which  might  have 
helped  to  instil  a  better  taste  for  letters,  and  gradually  to 
diffuse  that  taste  through  the  other  cities  of  Italy.  This 
favour  was  a  present  of  many  volumes  to  the  convent  of 
Bobbio,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Piacenza.  Early  in  the 
seventh  century,  this  convent  had  been  founded  by  the  Irish 
monk  Columban;  and  it  is  probable  that  Dungal  himself 
became  a  monk  in  this  society,  or  a  natural  attachment  to  its 
founder  prompted  the  benefaction.  In  the  list  given  of  the 
books  of  Dungal  and  of  many  others  which  formed  the 
library,  are  many  volumes,  both  sacred  and  profane,  but  few 
of  the  works  are  entire.  There  were  four  books  of  Virgil, 
two  of  Ovid,  one  of  Lucretius,  with  a  broken  series  of  the 
fathers  and  other  writers.  The  monks  appear  to  have  copied 
as  their  fancy  directed,  or  their  diligence  was  more  or  less 
persevering.  And  we  have  often  reason  to  lament  that  their 
selection  was  not  guided  by  a  better  taste.  Perhaps,  how- 
ever, the  scarcity,  or  rather  the  dearness  of  the  materials — 
before  linen  paper  was  invented — might  be  the  occasion  why 
the  labour  of  the  transcribers  was  often  suspended,  and 
works  left  imperfect,  even  when  the  copies  in  their  hands 
were  entire.1 

But  should  the  state  of  Ireland  be  really  assimilated  to 
that  of  other  countries,  when  we  are  told  by  Bede  and  other 
ancient  writers  how  much  it  was  celebrated  after  the  death 
of  St.  Patrick  in  the  fifth  century,  for  the  sanctity  of  his  dis- 
ciples, and  the  general  learning  of  the  monks?  It  is  added 
that  our  own  island,  and  also  Europe,  received  instructions 
from  that  quarter,  to  which  there  was  a  general  resort  of 
scholars  as  to  the  emporium  of  science.  In  the  beginning  of 
the  ninth  century,  it  is  related  that  no  fewer  than  seven 
thousand  students  frequented  the  schools  of  Armagh,  while 
there  were  three  more  rival  colleges  in  other  cities,  with 
many  private  seminaries  in  the  remoter  provinces. 

I  do  not  know  how  much  or  how  little  truth  may  be  in 
these  statements,  for  so  much  fiction  is  crowded  into  all  the 

1  See  the  Dissertation  before  quoted. 


TO  1000.]  LITERARY  STATE  OF  IRELAND.  123 

accounts  of  Ireland — whether  we  consider  the  supposed  origin 
of  its  inhabitants;  the  dynasties  of  its  princes;  the  policy  of 
its  governments;  the  antiquity  of  its  records;  and  its  literary 
renown — that  he  must  be  a  sturdy  believer  whose  scepticism 
is  not  awakened  in  every  period  of  its  history.  I  admit, 
however,  that  fiction  has  often  some  truth  for  its  basis;  and 
I  am  not  disposed  to  controvert  the  positive  declarations  of 
the  venerable  Bede — that  before,  and  about  his  time,  the 
Irish  church  possessed  many  eminent  men;  that  it  had 
libraries;  and  that  from  its  schools  learning  was  often  im- 
ported into  other  countries.  Of  what  description  this  learn- 
ing was,  these  other  countries  sufficiently  attest;  but  it  is 
sufficient  praise  for  Ireland  that  she  sent  out  teachers,  by 
whose  industry  the  cause  of  general  knowledge,  such  as  it 
was,  was  promoted;  nor  is  it  any  proper  topic  of  reproach, 
that  she  did  not  impart  to  others  what,  from  the  unfavourable 
circumstances  of  the  times,  she  herself  was  not  permitted  to 
acquire.  And  how  admirable  soever  might  be  the  produc- 
tions of  her  own  native  bards  and  other  writers,  it  was  in 
Latin  only  that  instruction  could  be  communicated  to  the 
pupils  of  other  regions.' 

From  the  pleasing  contemplation  of  the  reign  of  Alfred, 
when  on  the  commencement  of  a  new  century  we  turn  our 
attention  to  the  continent,  to  Italy,  to  France,  to  Spain,  or 
to  Germany,  we  find  them  involved  in  darkness  of  more  and 
more  accumulated  density,  their  manners  more  depraved, 
and  the  torpor  of  ignorance  more  confirmed.  The  state- 
ments of  all  writers  are  now  unanimous.  Public  schools, 
indeed,  existed,  but  they  were  little  frequented ;  and  if  a 
man  occasionally  appeared  whom  his  contemporaries  re- 
garded with  admiration,  the  extreme  rarity  only  served  to 
confirm  the  extraordinary  infelicity  of  the  times.  Even  the 
learned,  though  ever  partial  Baronius,2  looking  forward  to 
the  series  of  unworthy  prelates  who  would  soon  disgrace  the 
Roman  see,  hesitates  not  thus  to  characterize  the  age:  "We 
now  enter,"  he  says,  "  on  a  period,  which,  for  its  sterility  of 
every  excellence,  may  be  denominated  iron  ;  for  its  luxuriant 
growth  of  vice,  leaden  ;  for  its  dearth  of  writers,  dark"  The 

1  See  Bede  pasxim,  also  '/'//<•   Trixh    Historical  Library,  by  Nicholson, 
which  contains  much  interesting  matter. 
1  Ad  an.  900. 


124  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  774 

discriminating  fitness  of  these  epithets,  in  their  direct  applica- 
tion, is  not  easily  apprehended. 

On  a  former  occasion,1  before  I  proceeded  with  my  subject, 
looking  towards  Italy,  I  observed:  "  What  causes,  in  a  gradual 
but  sure  process,  had  conducted  the  human  mind  to  this 
temporary  state  of  ruin,  we  have  beheld  visibly  unfolded;  and 
the  reader,  whose  view  I  wish  to  confine  to  its  proper  object 
— who  has  already  witnessed  the  chair  of  Peter  partially  de- 
graded by  some  unworthy  men — will  be  prepared  to  expect, 
in  the  undeviating  progress  of  human  depravity,  that  charac- 
ters less  pure  will  contrive  to  invade  the  sacred  seat.  He  has 
often  deplored  the  misjudging  policy  of  many  pontiifs,  who, 
under  the  imposing  profession  of  extending  the  influence  of 
religious  truth,  left  nothing  untried  by  which  they  might 
accomplish  the  aggrandisement  of  the  Roman  see.  Hence 
they  acquired  wealth,  and  temporal  sovereignty,  while  they, 
at  the  same  time,  gradually  enlarged  the  boundaries  of  their 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction.  The  apostolic  chair,  thus  sur- 
rounded at  once  by  the  combined  attractions  of  power  and 
riches,  became  an  object  of  envy;  and  minds  of  the  highest 
ambition  began  to  aspire  to  it,  as  the  point  where  that  desire 
would  experience  the  most  extensive  gratification." 

When  we  consider  the  factions  which  for  more  than  half 
the  century  oppressed  the  city  of  Rome;  the  efforts  of  the 
neighbouring  princes  to  foment  discord ;  the  unbounded 
influence — within  the  walls — of  three  Roman  ladies  of  patri- 
cian descent,  the  mother  Theodora,  with  her  daughters 
Marozia  and  Theodora;  with  the  political  and  the  amorous 
intrigues  which  they  exercised;  the  characters  of  many  of 
the  bishops,  particularly  of  the  three  Johns,  X.,  XI.,  XII., 
who,  by  the  wiles  of  those  women  or  by  agents  equally  un- 
worthy, were  raised  to  the  papal  throne — when  these  things 
are  considered,  we  cannot  but  assent  to  the  propriety  of  the 
reproach  with  which  the  cardinal  has  branded  the  age,  at 
least  within  the  precincts  of  Rome.  The  laws  were  either 
entirely  silent,  or  when  they  spoke,  their  voice  was  not 
heeded;  the  admonitions  of  justice  were  suspended;  interest 
or  corruption,  violence  or  fraud,  universally  prevailed.  These 
causes  were  more  than  enough  to  rouse  the  indignation  of  a 
writer,  less  a  friend  to  virtue,  to  discipline,  and  to  the  honour 

3  History  of  the  Papal  Power,  MS. 


TO  1000.]       DEGRADED  STATE  OF  ROME.  125 

of  his  church;  but  Muratori,  though  he  admits  the  principal 
facts,  is  less  intemperate  in  his  remarks;  and  the  reader  may 
well  indulge  in  a  smile,  when  he  beholds  the  learned  Italian 
thus  seriously  labouring  to  extenuate  the  severity  of  Baronius, 
or  to  blunt  the  edge  of  his  invective.1 

"  With  too  much  truth,"  observes  the  historian  of  Italian 
literature,2  "  has  the  epithet  iron  been  applied  to  this  unfortu- 
nate epoch,  during  which  the  chair  of  Peter  was  often  dis- 
graced by  its  occupant.  The  monstrous  excesses  which  then 
abounded  fill  all  the  records  of  the  times.  To  me  it  is  a 
gratifying  reflection,  that  the  pursuit  in  which  I  am  engaged 
exempts  me  from  the  necessity  of  relating  facts  which,  it  were 
to  be  wished,  could  be  buried  in  eternal  oblivion." 

I  may  solace  myself  with  the  same  reflection;  but,  if  this 
cause  abridge  the  labour  of  narration,  it  must  likewise  be 
diminished  by  the  certain  conviction,  that,  in  a  period  of 
iron,  of  lead,  and  car  t^o-^v  of  darkness,  to  look  for  learned 
men  or  the  resources  of  learning  must  prove  a  fruitless  ex- 
penditure of  time.  It  is  allowed  by  the  author  just  quoted, 
who  is  ever  jealous  of  the  honour  of  his  country,  that  Italy 
could  now  boast  of  only  two  bishops  who,  in  the  department 
of  ecclesiastical  literature,  merited  the  name  of  learned;  and 
of  whom  one  was  certainly  a  stranger,  and  the  other  not  cer- 
tainly an  Italian,  Atto  of  Vercelli,  and  Raterius  of  Verona. 
Schools,  as  I  observed,  were  not  unfrequented,  even  in  the 
villages,  where  the  ministers  of  religion  taught,  and  to  which 
children  might  be  sent;  but  grammar,  or  at  most  the  trivium, 
and  that  rudely  inculcated,  comprised  the  whole  circle  of 
instruction.  It.  is  also  remarked,  that,  when  this  or  more, 
that  is,  dialectic  or  the  art  of  logic,  was  attempted,  it  was 
always  done  with  a  reference  to,  or  as  in  connexion  with,  the 
study  of  theology.  For,  as  what  learning  there  was.  was 
exclusively  confined  to  the  ecclesiastical  order,  monks  or 
churchmen,  it  was  natural  that  instruction  should  be  directed 
to  them  alone.  And  as  the  theology  then  in  vogue  was 
jejune  and  contentious,  the  character  of  all  preparatory 
studies3  would  naturally  possess  the  same  characteristics. 

When  discipline  was  generally  relaxed,  and  vice  trium- 

1   Sec  the  Aimali  d'ltaliu  and  tbe  Annuls  of  Borouius  of  the  tcntb  cen- 
tury. -  T.  iii.  li. 
3  Murut.  Dissert,  43.     Erucker,  iii.  0,%>. 


126          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  774 

phant,  the  votaries  of  every  science  must  be  few,  and  the 
clerical  order  cannot  well  be  expected  to  be  less  dissolute 
than  the  laity,  whom  their  example  had  corrupted.  Authors 
have  remarked,  that,  besides  the  beard,  and  the  hair,  and  the 
length  of  the  upper  garment,  no  difference  was  discernible 
between  the  ecclesiastics  and  the  people,  and  much  less  could 
any  difference  be  traced  in  their  conduct,  their  habits  of  life, 
or  their  conversation.  This  kind  of  parity  has  seldom  been 
seen.  And  as  study,  such  as  it  generally  was,  served  but 
little  to  improve  the  ecclesiastical  character,  worldly  men 
despised  the  pursuit.  In  Rome — which,  at  all  times,  may  be 
regarded  as  a  standard  above  the  common  level  of  other  cities 
or  countries — so  low  was  the  general  condition,  that — as  a 
writer,  almost  contemporary  with  this  precise  period,  informs 
us — when  there  was  a  wish  to  express  extreme  contempt  for 
an  adversary,  it  was  usual  to  call  him  Roman,  "  comprising 
in  one  word  whatever  was  base,  timid,  mercenary,  luxurious, 
and  false."1  Yet,  whatever  may  have  been  the  vices  of  this 
people,  and  however  gross  their  ignorance,  they  still  retained 
some  portion  of  their  native  wit.  When  John  XII.  was 
cited  before  a  synod,  convened  by  the  Emperor  Otho  in  the 
church  of  St.  Peter,  and  he  refused  to  appear,  the  fathers 
retorted  on  him  the  excommunication  with  which  he  threat- 
ened them,  in  the  following  words:  "  Judas,"  they  say,  "  with 
the  other  apostles,  had  received  from  his  master  the  power  of 
binding  and  loosing;  but  no  sooner  had  he  betrayed  him, 
than  the  sole  power  which  he  retained  was  to  bind  himself." 
The  crimes  which  they  charged  on  their  bishop,  and  of  the 
truth  of  which  they  had  undoubted  evidence  to  produce,  were 
comprised  under  the  heads  of  murder,  sacrilege,  simony,  gross 
debauchery,  incest,  and  blasphemy.2 

What  regularity  of  manners,  and  what  remains  of  litera- 
ture, if  the  word  may  yet  be  used,  were  still  in  existence,  were 
found  within  the  walls  of  convents;  where  there  were  some 
men,  at  least,  of  application,  of  whom  not  a  few  devoted 
their  talents  to  the  composition  of  Annals  and  Histories 
which  partook  largely  of  the  characteristic  rudeness  of  the 
times,  but  which  are  still  valuable  for  their  air  of  candour 
and  of  truth.3  Other  monks  employed  themselves  in  what 

1  Liutprand.  Leg.  ad  Niceph.  Phocam.  -  Liut.  Hist.  vi.  0. 

3  See  many  of  these  Histories,  edited  in  the  great  work  of  Muratori. 


TO   1000.]  OCCUPATION  OF  MONKS.  127 

they  called  Treatises  of  morality,  which  generally  consisted  of 
passages  strung  together  from  the  writings  of  the  Latin 
fathers,  the  canons  of  councils,  and  the  decrees  of  popes; 
while  they,  who  were  esteemed  best  qualified,  were  engaged 
in  the  arduous  task  of  education.  But,  though  the  doors  of 
the  schools  were  open  to  all,  their  pupils,  at  this  time,  were 
seldom  any  other  than  the  young  men  who  were  destined  for 
the  monastic  life.  These  were  initiated  in  the  elements  of 
all  knowledge  which  were  contained  in  the  Trivium  and  Qua- 
tervium,  denominated  the  liberal  arts ;  but  we  know  what 
were  the  absurd  maxims  and  disgusting  precepts  within  which 
they  were  contracted;  in  which  no  space  was  left  for  classical 
erudition;  for  ethics,  properly  so  called;  for  natural  history, 
or  philosophical  experiment.  And  if  it  even  happened,  in  the 
narrow  circle  to  which  they  were  restricted,  that  a  genius  of 
more  than  common  powers  advanced  beyond  the  confines  of 
his  contemporaries,  he  was  suspected  of  a  secret  intercourse 
with  the  world  of  spirits,  and  his  acquirements  were  registered 
with  the  theories  of  the  black  art. 

I  have  already  remarked,  that  the  transcription  of  books 
was  a  very  favourite  occupation  with  the  monks ;  and  as  the 
ability  of  fair  and  legible  writing  was  alone  absolutely  neces- 
sary for  the  undertaking,  and  as  that  could  be  mechanically 
acquired,  it  might  often  happen,  in  the  number  of  copyists, 
that  many  understood  nothing  of  the  language  of  their  author. 
At  no  time  was  this  more  probable  than  in  the  darkness  of 
the  tenth  century.  Hence — though  it  is  not  said  that  other 
causes  might  not  sometimes  produce  them — many  errors 
would  arise,  Avith  which,  at  the  revival  of  letters,  the  copies  of 
ancient  works  were  discovered  to  abound,  and  which  have 
contributed  to  compose  that  mass  of  various  readings,  upon 
which  the  sagacity  of  modern  scholars  has  been  so  vigorously 
exercised.  Yet  more  mistakes  were,  perhaps,  to  be  appre- 
hended from  the  pretenders  to  learning  or  the  half-learned, 
than  from  the  decidedly  ignorant;  for  while  the  latter  would 
labour  only  to  fulfil  the  orthographical  duties  of  their  task, 
the  former,  in  the  vanity  of  their  powers,  might  often  be 
tempted  to  alter  the  text,  and  to  accommodate  the  sense  to 
the  level  of  their  own  slender  capacities.  The  learned  Jerom 
had,  long  ago,  censured  this  mischievous  arrogance  in  the 
copyists  of  his  own  times:  "  They  write  down,"  says  he,  "not 


128     LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  774 

what  they  find,  but  what  they  seem  to  understand,  and 
expose  their  own  blunders,  whilst  they  affect  to  correct  the 
mistakes  of  others."  Errors  atfecting  the  sense  of  the  author, 
which  have  been  thus  introduced,  have  been  of  the  worst 
species;  whilst  a  remedy  has  been  more  readily  found  for  the 
gross  oversight  or  neglect  of  the  ignorant  or  the  idle,  in  sub- 
stituting one  letter  for  another,  or  a  word  which  has  no 
meaning  for  one  which  had.1 

But  if  the  labour  of  the  monks  had  only  been  as  assiduous 
as  is  often  pretended — considering  the  number  of  their 
establishments  in  all  countries — how  did  it  happen  that  the 
copies  of  works  were  so  scarce?  The  high  price  of  parchment 
or  vellum  might  account  for  the  incompleteness  of  some 
works  ;  and  the  same  cause  would  also  occasion  a  general 
scarcity.  Besides,  the  work  of  transcription  was  tardy  in  its 
progress,  particularly  where  pains  were  taken  to  exhibit 
splendid  editions.  To  this  must  be  added,  the  insecurity  of 
the  times,  and  the  incursions  of  barbarous  invaders,  by  whom 
the  monasteries  were  often  plundered,  and  their  libraries 
destroyed  or  dispersed.  Still  I  am  not  satisfied ;  and  the 
stubborn  fact  of  scarcity  inclines  me  to  suspect,  that  the  pens 
of  the  monks  were  less  constantly  employed  than  many  would 
induce  us  to  believe.  In  the  most  wealthy  convents,  where 
libraries  were  chiefly  formed,  a  short  catalogue  was  sufficient 
to  comprise  the  number  of  their  books;  and  the  price,  to  those 
who  were  disposed  to  purchase,  was  exorbitant.  In  the  lives 
of  the  popes,  and  of  many  bishops,  the  donations  of  books  are 
recorded,  as  acts  of  signal  generosity;  and,  as  deserving  of 
perpetual  remembrance,  the  gift  was  sometimes  inscribed 
even  on  the  monuments  of  departed  benefactors.  In  the  pre- 
ceding century,  Lupus,  abbot  of  Ferriares  in  Gaul,  in  a  letter 
to  Benedict  III.  requests  the  loan  of  the  Commentaries  of 
St.  Jerom  on  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  of  which  he  observes 
that  no  complete  copy  could  be  found  anywhere  in  France; 
and  with  them  Cicero's  work  De  Oratore,  the  Institutions  of 
Quintilian,  of  both  which  they  possessed  only  some  parts, 
with  the  Commentary  of  Donatus2  on  Terence.  "  These 
works,"  he  adds,  "  if  your  holiness  will  kindly  transmit  them 

1  See  more  oil  this  subject  in  Muratori,  Dissert,  xliii. 

2  See  Bib.  Lat.  ii. 


TO  1000.]        INDOLENCE  OF  THE  MONKS.  129 

to  us,  shall  be  copied  with  all  possible  celerity,  and  be  faith- 
fully restored."1 

The  scarcity  then  of  books,  of  which  innumerable  proofs 
might  be  adduced,  may  be  considered  as  the  cause  of  igno- 
rance, as  well  as  the  effect.  More  knowledge,  or  the  desire  of 
acquiring  more  knowledge,  which  was  excited  in  happier 
times,  would  have  kept  alive  curiosity,  and  have  multiplied 
the  means  of  instruction  and  the  materials  of  knowledge. 
The  various  productions  of  Grecian  and  Roman  taste,  in  the 
proudest  era  of  their  literature,  were  circulated  only  by  written 
copies.  The  will  then  was  now  wanting;  and  with  the  want 
of  this  I  charge  the  monks.  But  it  is  said  that  the  works 
on  which  they  laboured  most,  such  as  the  writings  of  the 
Latin  fathers,  were  voluminous:  and  they  were  besides  often 
called  to  transcribe  and  embellish  the  books  which  were  used 
in  the  service  of  the  church.  This  I  admit;  and  I  admit 
moreover,  that,  from  the  absence  of  a  critical  taste,  they 
might  often  be  induced,  or  pei'haps  commanded  by  their  supe- 
riors, to  lavish  much  labour  on  some  productions  of  little 
value.  But  yet,  when  it  is  considered  how  numerous  the 
hands  were — and  that  these  continued  to  multiply,  as  the 
fashion  of  monastic  institutions  became  more  prevalent,  there 
is  at  least  room  for  surprise,  that  so  little  should  have  been 
performed.  After  the  lapse  of  little  less  than  a  thousand 
years — from  the  fall  of  the  western  empire  to  the  revival  of 
letters — during  which  we  are  told  that  the  monks  in  all 
countries,  as  convents  were  erected,  prosecuted  the  labour  of 
copying  books  and  furnishing  their  libraries,  we  know  what 
a  dearth  there  still  was;  and  that,  after  the  most  diligent 
search,  only  a  few  copies  could  be  discovered  of  the  most 
valuable  works,  and  these  mutilated  and  damaged;  whilst 
others  were  irreparably  lost.  We  have,  however,  reason  to 
be  thankful  that  some  were  preserved;  and  I  am  not  willing 
to  withhold  from  the  monkish  labourers  their  due  portion  of 
praise,  however  slender  might  be  their  pretensions.'2 

In  every  great  abbey,  I  should  have  observed,  was  an 
apartment  called  the  Scriptorium ;  in  which  the  writers  were 

1  See  the  Dissertation  before  quoted,  also  the  '2nd  Dissert,  in  Wurton's 
H'txt.  tif  Knijitiih  J'ai'tri/,  in  whicii  are  collected  many  curious  facts  of  the 
paucity  and  dearness  of  hooks  m  this  time. 

*  Warton  (Dissert,  ii.)  is  rather  more  favourahle  to  the  monks. 

K 


130          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  774 

busied  in  transcribing  the  service-books  for  the  choir,  and 
such  others  as  were  deemed  proper  for  the  library;  and 
estates  were  often  granted  for  its  support.  This,  however, 
was  a  provision  more  recent  than  the  times  of  which  I  am 
speaking.  The  historian  of  our  poetry  l  enumerates  many 
works  which  were  thus  transcribed,  amongst  which  are  some 
of  the  Latin  classics.  These  were  sometimes  illuminated, 
and  various  ornaments  added  to  their  colours. 

The  second  part  of  the  century,  in  Italy  especially,  passed 
under  better  auspices.  Otho,  surnamed  the  Great,2  became 
emperor  and  king  of  Italy;  and  though  he  was  himself  un- 
lettered, yet,  by  a  firm  and  pacific  government,  he  dissipated 
faction,  and  established  that  security  which  is  propitious  to 
the  arts.  We  are  told  by  a  writer  of  some  antiquity3  what 
were  the  exercises  of  the  pupils  in  the  most  celebrated 
schools;  for  such  we  may  presume  that  school  to  have  been 
to  which  Otho  sent  his  eldest  son.  "  The  colleges  of  the 
canons,"  he  says,  "  were  the  seminaries  in  which  young  men 
were  instructed  in  heavenly  wisdom,  and  in  the  polite  arts; 
at  the  same  time,  they  had  their  regular  exercises  in  prayers 
and  readings  in  the  church,  where  the  bishop,  as  the  principal 
moderator  and  inspector  of  learning  and  ecclesiastical  disci- 
pline, presided.  The  son  of  the  most  excellent  Emperor  Otho 
was  thus  early  instructed  at  Hildesheim;  where  he  learned 
ecclesiastical  science,  attended  the  public  prayers  with  his 
equals,  and  assisted  in  the  music  of  the  church." 

In  962,  Otho  was  crowned  emperor  by  the  profligate  pon- 
tiff John  XIL,  about  six  years  after  which  we  read  of  the 
second  embassy  of  the  historian  Liutprand  to  the  Byzantine 
court.  Of  this  embassy  I  shall  elsewhere  speak,  and  of  the 
circumstances  which  attended  it.  Liutprand  was  certainly 
not  destitute  of  learning:  his  mind  was  irritable  and  ardent, 
and  the  tone  of  his  voice,  if  we  may  believe  his  own  state- 
ment, peculiarly  sweet.  In  early  youth  he  had  learned  the 
Latin  language,  if  it  was  not  his  native  speech;  in  his  em- 
bassies to  Constantinople  he  acquired  some  knowledge  of  the 
Greek  tongue;  and  in  a  Roman  council  we  find  him  inter- 
preting to  the  fathers  the  different  addresses  of  Otho,  to  whom 

1  Dissert,  ii.  The  passage  to  which  I  allude  is  highly  curious,  aud 
shows  with  what  diligence  he  had  investigated  the  subject. 

*  Bom,  9]  2;  died,  973. 

*  Joach.  Cureus,  Annal.  Siles.  quoted  by  Brucker,  iii. 


TO  1000.]  OTHO  THE  GREAT.  131 

the  Saxon,  or  German  language,  was  alone  familiar.  But  his 
style,  though  not  repulsive,  is  rugged  and  inharmonious;  his 
language,  when  he  deemed  himself  offended,  is  scurrilous, 
and  often  grossly  abusive;  and  the  portraits  which  he  draws 
of  vice  are  indelicate  and  disgusting.  Yet  Liutprand  was 
bishop  of  Cremona.  "  In  that  iron  age,"  observes  Muratori,1 
"he  rose  above  his  fellows;  and  his  writings  may  even  now 
be  read  with  pleasure,  notwithstanding  the  asperity  of  their 
style,  which  was  truly  congenial  with  the  character  of  the 
times." 

The  pedantry  of  Liutprand,  and  the  general  depravity  of 
Italian  manners,  may  well  have  disgusted  the  noble  mind  of 
Otho,  and  have  rendered  him  careless  of  their  fate;  but  Ger- 
many engaged  a  greater  share  of  his  attention.  Here  he  la- 
boured to  extirpate  ignorance.  He  founded  and  endowed 
many  sees;  appointed  bishops,  erected  convents,  and  opened 
schools.  But  his  generosity  has  been  censured,  as  impro- 
vident. Succeeding  ages,  certainly,  experienced  the  bad 
effects  of  the  wealth  and  honours  which  he  lavished  with  too 
little  discrimination  on  the  church.  He  died  in  973.  For 
his  military  exploits,  his  religious  ardour,  his  love  of  justice, 
and  his  many  luminous  virtues — which  the  surrounding 
darkness  only  rendered  more  conspicuous — he  was  deservedly 
styled  the  Great.  • 

The  successor  of  Otho  was  the  second  of  the  name  who 
was  educated  among  the  canons  of  Hildesheim.  In  moral 
qualities,  however,  his  did  not  equal  those  of  his  father:  and 
though  his  superior  in  learning,  it  does  not  appear  that  he 
did  much  for  the  cause  of  letters.  Their  cause  seemed  to 
have  become  desperate;  and  whd*e  no  success  could  be  ex- 
pected, why  undertake  a  vain  and  fruitless  toil?  As  the 
fluctuations  of  mind,  besides,  had  in  all  countries  now  gene- 
rally taken  one  common  level,  few  could  be  sensible  of  their 
own  degraded  taste,  or,  from  a  consciousness  of  inferiority, 
propose  to  themselves  higher  models  of  imitation.  Though 
all  was  low,  yet  there  was  some  gradation  of  acquirements; 
and  Liutprand  might  claim  and  receive  from  his  contempo- 
raries a  degree  of  fame  as  warmly  and  as  loudly  bestowed  as 
the  purest  breath  of  taste  had,  at  any  time,  conferred  upon 
her  most  admired  favourites.  Otho  possessed  one  peculiar 

1  Pref.  in  Liutp.  Rer.  Ital.  Serp.  ii.  1. 
*  K  2 


132    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.    [A.D.  774 

advantage.  His  queen  was  a  Grecian  princess,  Theophano, 
the  daughter  of  the  emperor  Romanus;  who,  with  the  har- 
monious accents  of  her  native  tongue,  probably  brought  some 
taste  for  letters  to  the  western  court.  This  taste  had  much 
declined  at  Byzantium,  but,  compared  with  that  of  other 
countries,  it  might  still  be  deemed  refined  and  classical.  The 
princess  is  represented  as  highly  accomplished:  possessing 
brilliant  talents,  and  a  pleasing  elocution.  From  her,  then, 
it  may  be  presumed  that  Otho  learned  the  Greek  language, 
in  which  he  is  said  to  have  excelled;  and  from  her  he  might 
have  learned,  more  than  from  the  canons  of  Hildesheim,  to 
appreciate  the  importance  of  literary  attainments.  But  the 
various  enterprises  and  incessant  wars  in  which,  from  the 
death  of  his  father,  he  was  engaged,  served  to  abstract  his  at- 
tention from  more  peaceful  occupations;  and  he  died  within 
ten  years,  after  incurring  the  epithet  of  sanguinary.1 

What  might  have  been  done  by  his  son  Otho  III.,  now  an 
infant,  educated  under  the  eye  of  his  mother,  and  tutored  by 
the  ablest  professors  of  the  age,  must  be  left  to  conjecture. 
Contemporary  writers — the  worth  of  whose  panegyric  is 
well  understood — speak  rapturously  of  his  acquirements;  and 
if  these  had  taken  a  right  direction,  we  might  have  had 
reason  to  lament  the  immaturity  of  his  death.  He  lived  to 
feee  the  end  of  the  century,  but  not  that  of  his  twenty-second 
year.'2 

After  all  that  has  been  said,  it  is  necessary  for  me  to  recal 
from  the  silence  of  oblivion  the  names  of  those  who,  during 
these  last  years,  whether  in  Germany  or  England,  if  we  may 
give  credit  to  their  chroniclers,  cultivated  the  various  branches 
of  knowledge  with  success."  Even  modern  writers3  still  show 
a  partiality  to  Britain;  where  they  say,  that  the  successors  of 
Alfred  evinced  a  laudable  zeal  in  supporting  the  institutions 
which  he  had  formed;  where,  whilst  all  erudition  had  nearly 
vanished  away  in  other  regions,  learned  men  still  flourished; 
and  where,  in  the  schools  of  Oxford,  able  masters  continued 
to  preside. 

Among  the  foremost,  we  are  told,  in  the  career  of  science 
and  of  every  virtue,  stood  the  celebrated  Archbishop  Dun- 
Stan.  He  had  been  educated  in  the  monastery  of  Glaston- 

jr 

1  See  the  authors  quoted  by  Muratori,  Annal.  d'ltalia,  v. 

2  Ibid.  vi. 

3  Brucker,  iii.  638.     Bale,  and  Pits,  and  Leland,  are  more  partial. 


TO  1000.]  ST.  DUNSTAN.  133 

bury,  of  which  he  afterwards  became  abbot.  This  place,  ac- 
cording to  his  biographer,1  which  as  yet  was  not  conventually 
regulated,  was  the  resort  of  many  illustrious  men,  versed  in 
sacred  and  secular  science,  chiefly  from  Ireland.  The  natives 
of  that  country  were,  he  adds,  fond  of  this  vagrant  life;  and 
establishing  themselves  at  Glastonbury — because  its  seques- 
tered situation  had  rendered  it  eligible  for  their  purposes, 
and  principally  because  "  their  great  patron  St.  Patrick  had 
there  lived  and  died" — these  literary  settlers  opened  schools, 
and  admitted  the  children  of  the  nobility,  whose  liberality, 
they  trusted,  would  compensate  for  the  scanty  produce  of  the 
neighbouring  country.  Among  those  scholars  was  Dunstan; 
and  we  have  afterwards  an  account  of  his  talents,  and  of  the 
studies  which  lie  principally  pursued.  "  They  were  the  sci- 
ences of  the  philosophers,"  he  says,  "  which  antiquity  has  de- 
fined to  be  the  knowledge  of  those  things  which  are,  and  that 
may  be  in  another  manner;  such  as  magnitudes,  of  which, 
some  are  fixed  and  without  motion,  while  others  are  ever 
subject  to  change,  and  at  no  time  are  at  rest;  and  such  as 
multitudes,  of  which  some  are  so  per  se,  alia  in  ratione 
posita."  Impressed  with  the  notion  that  these  sciences  con- 
tained the  seeds  of  great  perfection,  Dunstan  applied  to  them 
with  uncommon  ardour.  The  progress  which  he  made  was 
proportioned  to  his  zeal;  but  instrumental  music  was  what 
appears  chiefly  to  have  captivated  his  affections.  "  Like  the 
prophet  David,  he  would  sometimes  seize  his  psaltery;  or 
strike  the  harp,  or  swell  the  organ;  or  touch  the  cymbal." 
In  the  mechanical  arts  he  was  likewise  remarkable  for  his  in- 
genuity. He  could  paint;  write  a  beautiful  hand;  carve 
figures^  and  form  gold,  silver,  brass,  or  iron,  into  whatever 
shape  he  pleased. 

We  are  told  by  another  author,2  that  while  the  mind  of 
Dunstan  was  in  his  early  years  nearly  absorbed  in  sacred 
studies,  he  dedicated  some  hours  to  certain  secular  pursuits, 
passing  lightly  over  the  poets,  and  such  arts  as  are  of  little 
practical  utility;  but  cultivating,  with  more  care,  the  study  of 
arithmetic,  geometry,  astronomy,  and  music.  In  the  progress 
of  these  studies,  he  remarks  that  the  Irish  teachers  promised 
much,  while  they  showed  little  skill  in  the  formation  of  the 

1  Osbernus  iu  vita  St.  Dunst.     He  lived  in  the  lltli  century. 
*  Guil.  Meildien.  ap.  Leland.  de  Scrip.  Brit. 


134         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  774 

Latin  letters,  and  in  their  correct  pronunciation.  "  But  it 
was  music,"  he  adds,  "  performed  by  himself  or  others,  by 
which  the  soul  of  Dunstan  was  most  charmed.  Closing  his 
books,  he  laid  his  hand  on  the  harp,  and  elicited  sweet  melo- 
dies from  the  sounding  chords."  On  a  particular  occasion, 
he  took  this  harp  with  him,  and  while  it  hung  on  the  wall — 
himself  being  employed  in  drawing  a  pattern  which  a  lady 
had  requested  him  to  delineate,  as  if  to  cheer  his  labour,  and 
in  tones  the  most  accurate  and  pleasing,  it  spontaneously 
warbled  the  air  of  a  well-known  anthem.  The  company  were 
seized  with  astonishment,  and  soon  expressed  their  conviction 
that  Dunstan  possessed  more  science  than  properly  belonged 
to  man.  "  The  braying  ass,"  observes  the  author,  "  was 
once  heard  to  utter  human  sounds;  but  till  now  no  harp  was 
heard  to  play  as  did  the  harp  of  Dunstan."1 

Relatively  to  the  times,  then,  when  the  smallest  ascent 
above  the  common  level  of  gross  ignorance  excited  wonder, 
we  may  readily  allow  that  the  archbishop  was  an  accom- 
plished man;  and  the  marvellous  tales  with  which  the  his- 
tories of  his  life  abound  are  not  necessary  to  convince  us 
that,  in  other  respects,  he  was  great  and  good;  however  much 
certain  parts  of  his  public  conduct,  when  he  came  into  power, 
may  by  some  have  been  deemed  deserving  of  censure.  An 
author2  of  rather  later  date  having  mentioned,  "  that  the 
great  luminaries  of  the  age  in  Britain  shone  like  stars  from 
heaven,"  observes  of  Dunstan,  that,  after  Alfred,  the  liberal 
arts  were  much  indebted  to  his  exciting  zeal.  He  repaired, 
he  adds,  munificently,  many  royal  foundations;  was  a  terror 
to  profligate  kings  and  nobles,  and  a  steady  support  to  the 
poor  and  weak.  As  an  instance  of  his  ingenuity,  it  is  also 
mentioned,  that  he  contrived  a  number  of  marks  or  points  of 
gold  or  silver  to  be  fixed  at  certain  distances  in  the  drinking 
cups  of  the  time,  by  which  each  man  knew  the  measure  which 
he  might  swallow,  and  could  not  for  shame  exceed.  The 
mental  qualities  and  rare  endowments  of  Dunstan  are  thus 
summed  up  in  a  few  words  :  "  So  great  was  his  insight  into 
things,  and  such  his  powers  of  expression,  that  nothing  could 
be  more  profound  than  his  invention,  nothing  more  embel- 
lished than  his  diction,  nor  more  sweet  than  his  utterance."3 

Let  this  suffice  for  England;  and,  indeed,  did  not  the  writ- 

1  Osbernus,  tit  sup. 

*  Wil.  Malmesb.  De  gest.  Eeg.  Angl.  ii.  Osbern,  ut  sup. 


TO  1000.]  SYLVESTER  II.  135 

ings  and  general  character  of  the  age  evince  the  darkness  in 
which  it  was  immerged,  who,  in  perusing  the  last  lines,  would 
not  feel  himself  carried  back  to  the  golden  days  when  Plato 
lectured,  or  when  Cicero  harangued  ?'  I  may  also  remark 
that  the  reader  who  has  not  the  original  passages  before  him 
is  not  unlikely  to  form  an  erroneous  judgment  from  the  trans- 
lations of  them  which  it  is  requisite  to  make  in  a  work  which 
is  designed  to  be  generally  read.  It  would  perhaps  be  more 
satisfactory  to  a  few,  if  the  passages  were  given  in  their 
native  dress;  and  others  may  think  that,  if  translated,  their 
gross  and  barbarous  idiom  should  be  preserved.  Yet,  would 
this  be  endured  ? 

Passing  over  the  names  of  the  few  scholars  who,  at  this 
time,  helped  to  preserve  from  total  extinction  the  feeble  lamp 
of  science,  in  the  schools  of  France,  of  whom  the  principal 
was  Abbo,  the  abbot  of  Fleury,  with  pleasure  I  turn  to 
Gerbert,  who  is  better  known  by  this  name  than  by  the  appel- 
lation of  Sylvester  II.  which  he  derived  from  the  papal  chair. 
On  a  former  occasion,2  in  entering  on  the  transactions  in 
many  of  which  he  was  engaged,  I  said  :  Before  I  relate  these 
occurrences,  it  is  proper  that  the  reader  be  made  acquainted 
with  a  man,  who  from  his  talents,  from  the  ambition  which 
those  talents  inspired,  and  from  the  high  character  which  he 
held  in  the  church,  and  in  the  cabinets  of  princes,  was  enabled 
to  take  a  conspicuous  lead  in  the  general  transactions  of  the 
times.  It  is  besides  pleasing,  from  the  gloom  by  which  we 
have  long  been  enveloped,  to  contemplate  the  luminous  transit 
of  a  genius,  which  seemed  to  breathe  some  freshness  of  ani- 
mation into  the  drooping  remains  of  the  liberal  arts. 

Gerbert  was  born  in  Aquitaine,  of  mean  parentage,  and 
received  his  first  education  where,  at  that  time,  it  could 
alone  be  procured,  in  a  neighbouring  convent.  Hence  he 
was  transferred,  if  he  did  not  make  his  escape,  to  the  family 
of  a  count  of  Barcelona,  in  which  he  prosecuted  his  studies 
under  the  care  of  a  Spanish  bishop,  whom  he  accompanied 
from  Spain  to  Rome,  lie  was  introduced  to  Otho  the  Great, 
attached  himself  to  Adalbaron,  the  archbishop  of  Rheims, 
whom  he  attended  to  his  see,  and  returned  with  him  the  fol- 
lowing year,  about  972,  into  Italy.  His  progress  in  learning, 
which  comprised  geometry,  astronomy,  the  mathematics, 

1  History  of  the  Papal  Power,  Ms.  J  Ibid. 


136          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [A.D.  774 

mechanics,  and  every  branch  of  subordinate  science,  is  de- 
scribed by  this  time  to  have  been  prodigious.  His  residence 
in  Spain,  during  which  he  visited  Cordova  and  Seville,  had 
enabled  him  to  profit  by  the  instruction  of  the  Arabian 
doctors.  He  was  now  promoted  by  Otho,  as  the  first  reward 
of  his  talents,  to  be  abbot  of  the  celebrated  monastery  of 
Bobbio,  in  Lombardy.  He  became  preceptor  to  the  grand- 
son of  his  patron;  and  afterwards  withdrawing  from  his 
abbey,  in  which  he  had  at  no  time  experienced  any  satisfac- 
tion, he  again  joined  his  friend,  the  archbishop  of  Rheims. 
Here  he  had  leisure  to  prosecute  his  favourite  studies,  while,  as 
his  letters1  show,  his  abilities  were  usefully  engaged  in  dif- 
ferent political  transactions;  here,  in  addition  to  the  superin- 
tendence of  the  public  schools,  the  education  of  Robert,  the 
son  and  successor  of  Hugh  Capet,  was  entrusted  to  his  care; 
and  here  he  was  laudably  employed  in  collecting  books  from 
every  quarter,  in  impregnating  his  mind  with  their  contents, 
and  in  diffusing  among  his  countrymen  a  more  noble  ardour 
than  the  sports  of  the  field,  or  martial  achievements,  or  the 
excess  of  the  table  could  inspire.  It  is  said  that  the  effects 
of  his  enlightened  zeal  were  soon  visible  in  Germany,  Gaul, 
and  Italy;  and  by  his  writings,  as  well  as  by  his  example 
and  his  exhortations,  many  were  animated  to  emulate  their 
master's  fame,  and,  caught  by  the  love  of  science,  to  abandon 
the  barbarous  prejudices  of  the  age.  In  his  epistles,  Gerbert 
cites  the  names  of  various  classical  authors  whose  works  he 
possessed,  though  often  incomplete;  and  it  is  plain,  from  the 
style  of  those  epistles,  from  which  the  scholar  will  not  turn 
with  disgust,  that  he  was  by  no  means  incited  by  a  vain 
ostentation  in  the  expenditure  of  his  wealth  in  employing 
copyists,  and  exploring  the  repositories  in  which  the  moulder- 
ing relics  of  ancient  learning  were  still  to  be  found. 

Though,  if  we  may  believe  his  encomiasts,  the  genius  of 
Gerbert  embraced  all  the  branches  of  learning,  its  peculiar 
bent  was  to  mathematical  inquiries.  In  these — when  the 
barbarism  of  the  age  is  considered,  and  no  comparison  is 
instituted  with  modern  times — he  may  be  said  to  have  ad- 
vanced no  inconsiderable  way;  but,  in  itself,  his  knowledge 
was  small,  and  his  geometry,  though  easy  and  perspicuous, 
was  elementary  and  superficial.  What  was  the  extent  of  his 

1  Bib.  8,  x.  as  collected  by  Pnpyrius  Masson. 


TO   1000.]  SYLVESTER  II.  137 

astronomical  science  does  not  appeal4;  but  what  chiefly 
deserves  notice  is,  the  ingenious  facility  with  which  he  aided 
his  own  progress,  and  rendered  discovery  more  palpable,  by 
combining  mechanism  with  theory.  He  constructed  spheres, 
the  arrangements  of  which  he  describes;1  observed  the  stars 
through  tubes;  invented  a  clock,  which  with  some  accuracy 
marked  the  hours;  and  by  means  of  wind,  pressed  forward 
by  a  strong  current  of  water,  contrived  to  fill  brazen  pipes 
of  various  lengths  and  sizes,  so  as  to  produce  musical  sounds. 
This  instrument  he  calls  an  organ,  more  noisy,  as  we  may 
presume,  and  less  melodious  than  the  harp  of  ^Eolus,  or  that 
of  Dunstan.  Music,  which  was  then  deemed  an  essential 
member  of  the  quadrivium,  or  higher  sciences,  necessarily 
engaged  the  attention  of  Gerbert.  It  is  also  said,  that  we 
are  indebted  to  liim  for  the  Arabic  numerals,  which  he  pro- 
bably derived  from  the  school  of  Cordova.2  Such  discoveries 
and  such  attainments  were  indications  of  no  common  mind; 
but  while  they  excited  admiration  in  some,  they  called  forth 
horror  in  more.  They  could  not  contemplate  the  lines  which 
he  was  seen  to  draw,  nor  his  solemn  attention  when  viewing 
the  face  of  the  heavens,  without  conceiving  that  he  was  em- 
ployed in  magical  operations,  and  held  an  illicit  intercourse 
with  the  devil  and  his  angels.  His  great  acquirements,  and 
the  whole  success  of  his  life,  relates  a  puerile  legend,  were 
owing  to  a  compact  into  which  he  entered  with  Satan,  when 
he  withdrew  from  the  convent  of  Fleury.3 

The  philosopher  was  employed,  as  I  have  described  him, 
in  the  schools  of  Rheims,  when  his  friend  the  archbishop 
Adalbaron  died;  and  it  seems  that  he  had  designed  him  for 
his  successor,  and  that  his  intention  was  approved  by  the 
clergy  and  the  bishops  of  the  province.  He  did  not,  how- 
ever, succeed  to  the  vacant  see.  The  throne  of  France  was  at 
this  time  occupied  by  Hugh  Capet,  who  owed  his  elevation  to 
the  best  of  all  titles,  the  choice  of  the  people;  though  duke 
Charles,  the  uncle  of  the  last  king,  and  the  hereditary  claim- 
ant, still  survived.  Charles  had  a  nephew  named  Arnulphus, 
who  had  been  bred  to  the  church.  To  conciliate  his  good- 
will, and  through  him,  if  it  were  practicable,  to  soften  the 
resentments  of  the  duke,  Hugh  proposed  to  seat  him  in  the 
chair  of  Rheims.  He  gladly  accepted  the  offer;  and  took 

1  Ep.  148.  »  See  Bnicker.  in.  047.  *  Ibid. 


138  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  774 

an  oath  of  fealty  to  the  king.  No  tie  could  bind  the 
treacherous  priest;  for  he  soon  afterwards  surrendered  the 
city  into  the  hands  of  his  uncle;  and,  in  order  to  disguise  his 
perfidy,  permitted  himself  to  be  made  a  prisoner.  Nego- 
tiations and  controversy  were  the  consequences  of  this  event. 
Both  parties  applied  to  Rome;  where,  meeting  with  no  suc- 
cess, the  king  resolved  to  bring  the  matter  before  the  bi.-hops 
of  the  province,  and  for  that  purpose  summoned  a  synod  to 
meet  at  Rheims.  It  was  now  about  the  year  991. 

With  philosophic  resignation,  Gerbert  had  submitted  in 
silence  to  the  appointment  of  Arnulphus.  Even,  for  some 
time,  he  professed  himself  his  friend,  and  espoused  his  views 
in  favour  of  duke  Charles,  till  a  change  of  circumstances, 
or  more  mature  reflection,  convinced  him,  that  the  path  of 
honour,  if  he  wished  to  make  it  the  path  to  'preferment, 
must  be  sought  under  the  more  auspicious  standard  of  Hugh 
Capet.  From  this  time  he  solemnly  renounced  every  engage- 
ment with  the  faction  of  Arnulphus;  and  he  was  the  warm 
friend  of  the  national  king,  and  in  the  fullest  enjoyment  of 
his  literary  fame,  when  the  council  met. 

It  is  foreign  from  my  purpose  to  state  the  transactions  of 
this  council,  in  which  the  speech  of  the  bishop  of  Orleans 
was  particularly  remarkable  for  its  eloquence,  and  for  its 
severe  reflections  on  the  Roman  court.  It  has  been  inti- 
mated1 that  it  was  Gerbert  who  collected,  and,  it  is  thought, 
modelled,  agreeably  to  his  own  talents  and  personal  views, 
the  acts  of  the  synod.  This  is  conjecture.  Arnulphus,  at 
all  events,  canonically  convicted,  or  awed,  as  it  is  said,  by 
terror,  resigned  the  chair  of  Rheims,  to  which  Gerbert  was 
elected. 

When  the  news  of  the  transactions  of  the  Rheimish  synod 
reached  the  ears  of  his  holiness,  John  XV.,  aggravated,  as 
undoubtedly  it  was,  by  all  its  irritating  circumstances,  his 
anger  was  inflamed;  and  he  proceeded  to  excommunicate  the 
bishops  who  had  been  concerned  in  the  deposition  of  Arnul- 
phus, and  the  elevation  of  Gerbert.  The  latter  now  wrote 
various  epistles,2  of  which  I  shall  extract  a  passage  from 
that  to  the  archbishop  of  Sens,  who  had  been  president 
of  the  council.  This  will  evince  the  intrepid  mind  of  the 
writer,  as  well  as  the  comprehensiveness  of  his  views  in 

1  Baron.  Ann.  sub  an.  992.  2  Ibid. 


TO   1000.]  SYLVESTER  II.  139 

the  midst  of  surrounding  ignorance.  "  How  do  your  ene- 
mies say,"  he  proceeds,  after  some  preliminary  remark*!, 
"  that,  in  deposing  Arnulphus,  we  should  have  waited  for 
the  judgment  of  the  Roman  bishop?  Can  they  show  that 
his  judgment  is  before  that  of  God,  which  our  synod  pro- 
nounced? The  prince  of  Roman  bishops,  and  of  the  apostles 
themselves,  proclaimed,  that  God  must  be  obeyed  rather  than 
men  :  and  Paul,  the  teacher  of  the  Gentiles,  announced 
anathema  to  him,  though  he  were  an  angel,  who  should 
preach  a  doctrine  different  from  that  which  had  been  deli- 
vered. Because  the  pontiff  Marcellinus  offered  incense  to 
Jupiter,  must  all  bishops,  therefore,  sacrifice  to  him?  l  I 
assert,  boldly,  that  if  the  bishop  of  Rome  shall  sin  against 
his  brother,  and,  when  often  admonished,  shall  not  obey  the 
church,  that  bishop,  I  say,  by  the  command  of  God,  shall 
be  deemed  a  heathen  or  a  publican.  The  higher  the  rank  is, 
the  greater  is  the  fall.  If  he  think  us  unworthy  of  his  com- 
munion, because  no  one  of  us  will  speak  contrary  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  gospel,  he  cannot,  on  that  account,  separate 
us  from  the  communion  of  Christ,  nor  deprive  us  of  eternal 
life.  The  saying  of  Gregory,  '  That  the  flock  must  fear 
the  sentence  of  the  pastor,  whether  it  be  just  or  unjust' 
applies  not  to  bishops.  The  people  are  the  flock,  not  they. 
You  ought  not,  then,  for  a  crime  which  you  acknowledged 
not,  and  of  which  you  were  not  convicted,  to  have  been 
suspended  from  communion;  nor  to  have  been  treated  as 
rebels,  when  you  declined  no  council.  The  sentence  issued 
against  you,  not  delivered  in  writing,  is  an  illegal  act.  Oc- 
casion must  not  be  given  to  our  enemies  to  say,  that  the 
priesthood,  which  is  one  as  the  church  is  one,  is  so  subjected 
to  one  man,  that,  if  he  be  corrupted  by  money,  or  favour, 
or  fear,  or  ignorance,  no  one  can  be  a  bishop,  unless,  by  the 
same  means,  he  be  rendered  acceptable  to  him.  Let  the 
gospels,  the  writings  of  the  apostles  and  the  prophets,  the 
canons  inspired  by  God,  and  reverenced  by  Christendom, 
and  the  decrees  of  the  apostolic  see  agreeing  with  them,  be 

1  Baronins  sul>  an.  0!lv>,  who,  from  the  opening  of  the  Synod  of  Rheim3 
had  loaded  the  nain<-  of  <  '•< -rU'i-t  with  the  foulest  terms  of  reproach,  becomes 
at  this  moment  outrageous.  He  admits  the  fabulous  story  of  Marcellinus, 
on  account  of  certain  supposed  doctrines  favourable  to  the  pretensions  of 
Home,  connected  with  it ;  but  the  inference  proposed  by  Gerbert  irritates 
him  past  all  measure. 


140     LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  774 

the  common  law  of  the  church.  He  who,  through  contempt, 
shall  depart  from  this  law,  by  it  let  him  be  judged:  but  peace 
rest  on  him  by  whom  it  shall  be  strenuously  observed.  Beware, 
not  to  abstain  from  the  holy  mysteries,  which  would  be  an 
acknowledgment  of  guilt.  It  becomes  us  to  repel  an  unjust 
charge;  to  despise  an  illegal  sentence." 

In  language  not  less  energetic,  and  in  a  tone  not  less  in- 
dignant, he  Avrote  to  the  bishop  of  Strasburg.  Three  years 
now  passed;  but  Rome  finally  obtained  permission  from  the 
king  to  send  a  legate  into  France,  before  Avhom  another  synod 
was  to  meet,  and  there  discuss  the  respective  merits  of  the 
rival  prelates.  It  met  at  Mason,  a  town  subject  to  the  metro- 
politan of  Rheims;  but,  besides  Gerbert,  a  few  abbots,  and  the 
duke  of  Lorraine,  only  four  bishops  from  the  eastern  Gaul 
attended.  The  object  of  the  meeting  being  explained,  Ger- 
bert rose:1  "Most  reverend  fathers,"  he  said:  "this  day  I 
have  long  had  before  my  eyes;  and  have  earnestly  desired  it, 
since  I  took  upon  me  this  charge  by  the  exhortation  of  my 
brethren,  though  not  without  the  peril  of  my  life.  I  was 
moved  by  a  concern  for  the  salvation  of  a  perishing  people, 
and  by  a  respect  for  your  authority,  by  which  I  deemed  my- 
self protected.  The  recollection  of  your  repeated  kindness 
filled  me  with  delight;  when  I  was  informed  by  a  sudden 
rumour  of  your  dissatisfaction,  and  that  you  reproached  me 
with  an  act,  which  others  considered  as  deserving  of  no 
common  praise,  I  own,  I  was  shocked;  and  the  loss  of  your 
favour  alarmed  me  more  than  the  daggers  of  my  enemies. 
But,  at  present,  as  Heaven  has  propitiously  brought  me  before 
you,  I  will  briefly  speak  of  my  innocence,  and  state  by  what 
means  I  was  raised  to  the  Rheimish  chair.  After  the  death 
of  the  great  Otho,  when  I  had  resolved  never  to  quit  Adal- 
baron,  who  was  a  father  to  me;  ignorant  of  his  views,  I  was 
designed  by  him  for  the  priesthood;  and  when  he  departed 
this  life,  in  the  presence  of  many  illustrious  persons,  he  named 
me  his  successor.  But  though  I  stood  on  the  firmness  of  the 
rock,  I  was  rejected  by  simoniacal  heresy;  and  Arnulphus  was 
preferred.  Yet  I  refused  not  to  serve  him,  more  faithfully, 
indeed,  than  I  ought;  till,  at  length,  fully  convinced  of  his 
treasonable  practices,  I  renounced  his  friendship,  and  aban- 
doned him,  with  his  accomplices,  with  no  hope,  as  my  ene- 

1  Ap.  Baron,  sub  an.  995. 


TO   1000.]  SYLVESTER  II.  141 

mies  proclaim,  with  no  compact,  of  succeeding  to  his  honours; 
but  barely  not  to  participate  in  his  crimes."  He  then 
mentions  the  proceedings  against  Arnulphus,  and  his  canon- 
ical deposition,  and  adds:  "  By  my  brethren  and  the  nobles 
of  the  land,  I  was  again  entreated  to  take  charge  of  a  dis- 
persed and  lacerated  flock.  Long  time  I  resisted;  and,  with 
reluctance,  finally  gave  my  consent,  well  aware  of  the  evils 
with  which  I  was  threatened.  Such  was  the  open  candour  of 
my  conduct,  such  my  innocence,  and  such,  before  God  and 
you,  was  the  purity  of  my  conscience."  He  next  replies  to 
other  objections;  repeats,  that  the  archiepiscopal  burden  had 
been  imposed  upon  his  shoulders;  and  adds,  that  if,  on  the 
occasion,  there  had  been  any  deviation  from  the  established 
rules,  it  must  be  ascribed  to  the  misfortunes  of  the  times,  and 
the  hostile  state  of  the  country:  silent  equidem  leges,  says  he, 
inter  arma.  He  concludes:  "  I  now  return  to  myself,  who 
was  furiously  menaced  by  the  enemy,  because  the  care  of 
the  people  and  the  safety  of  the  province  were  in  my  hands. 
Famine  was  at  our  doors;  for  our  barns  and  our  repositories 
were  seized.  The  sword  without,  and  trepidation  within  our 
gates,  permitted  no  repose.  The  voice  of  your  authority,  by 
which  our  evils  might  be  alleviated,  was  alone  anxiously 
desired;  as  we  believe  that  it  is  able  to  bring  relief,  not  to 
Rheiins  alone,  but  to  the  disconsolate  and  almost  fallen  church 
of  Gaul.  This,  under  Providence,  we  now  expect,  and  it  is 
our  common  prayer,  that  it  may  be  brought  to  pass." 

How  the  eloquent  harangue — of  which  the  closing  lines,  as 
addressed  to  the  four  prelates,  are  not  easily  understood — 
was  received,  we  are  not  told;  nor  whether  any  reply  was 
attempted.  It  is  related  only,  that  he  presented  his  speech 
to  the  legate,  who  went  out  with  the  bishops;  and  having 
consulted  with  them  and  the  duke,  he  called  in  Gerbert,  and 
entreated  him  to  send  a  messenger,  with  instructions  from  the 
legate,  to  the  king.  To  this  he  assented,  on  which  another 
synod  was  directed  to  meet  at  Rheims  on  the  first  of  July. 
But  when  it  seemed  that  the  business  was  concluded,  it  was 
announced  to  him  by  the  bishops,  on  the  part  of  the  legate, 
that,  till  the  appointed  synod  met,  he  must  abstain  from  the 
celebration  of  divine  service.  Gerbert  resisted  the  irregular 
injunction,  and  waiting  on  the  legate,  represented  to  him, 
"  that  no  bishop,  nor  patriarch,  nor  the  pontiff  himself,  had 
power  to  excommunicate  any  one,  unless  convicted  on  his 


142  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  774 

own  confession  or  otherwise,  or  unless,  when  canonically 
cited,  he  refused  to  appear;  that  he  was  chargeable  with  no 
such  misdemeanour;  that  he  alone,  of  all  the  French  bishops, 
had  attended  the  legate's  synod;  in  a  word,  that,  conscious 
of  his  innocence,  he  could  not,  by  compliance,  sign  his  own 
condemnation."  He  gave  way,  however,  to  the  fraternal  re- 
monstrance of  the  metropolitan  of  Treves;  and  the  council 
separated  to  meet  again  on  the  1st  of  July.  But  that  it 
met  on  the  first  of  July,  or,  if  it  met,  that  anything  was 
done,  cannot  be  collected  from  the  obscure  annals  of  the 
times.1  Gerbert,  at  least,  seems  to  have  continued  to  dis- 
charge the  duties  of  his  see;  and  Arnulphus  was  still  de- 
tained in  the  prisons  of  Orleans. 

Thus  a  few  months  more  passed;  but  when  Hugh  Capet, 
in  the  following  year,  996,  was  dead,  and  a  new  pontiff, 
Gregory  V.,  was  urgent  for  the  measure,  Gerbert  was  removed, 
or  consented  to  relinquish  his  station,  and  Arnulphus  once 
more  occupied  the  chair  of  Rheims.  The  philosopher  then 
joined  his  former  pupil,  the  young  emperor,  Otho  III.,  and 
being  with  him  in  Italy  when  the  archbishop  of  Ravenna 
died,  he  was  promoted  to  the  vacant  see.  In  the  year  998  we 
find  him  sitting  with  the  pontiff  in  a  Roman  synod,  in  which 
it  was  decreed,  that  the  French  king,  Robert,  who  had  also 
been  his  pupil,  should  quit  his  queen,  whom  he  had  married 
within  the  prohibited  degrees  of  kindred;  and  the  bishops 
who  had  assisted  at  the  marriage  were  suspended  from  all 
communion,  till  they  repaired  to  Rome,  and  made  satisfaction. 
In  the  spring  of  the  following  year  died  Gregory  V.,  in  the 
flower  of  youth. 

Otho,  who  was  greatly  affected  by  the  death  of  the  young 
pontiff,  his  cousin  and  play-fellow,  and  who  was  aware,  from 
his  own  experience,  and  from  that  of  his  predecessors,  of  the 
inconstant  temper  of  the  Roman  people,  judged  it  prudent 
not  to  leave  the  appointment  of  the  new  bishop  to  their  own  ca- 
pricious election.  To  this  dignity,  who  could  exhibit  a  stronger 
claim  than  Gerbert,  the  archbishop  of  Ravenna.  On  him, 
therefore,  the  emperor  fixed;  and  he  was  ordained  under  the 
name  of  Sylvester  II.  But  when  we  look  back  to  the  senti- 
ments which  he  advanced  in  his  letters,  or  which  he  espoused 
in  recording  the  proceedings  of  the  Rheimish  synod — though 

1  See  Baronius,  sub  an.  995. 


TO  1000.]  SYLVESTER  II.  143 

we  shall  not  subscribe  to  the  angry  remark  of  Baronius,  that 
he  was  "  most  unworthy  of  the  apostolic  chair,  and  its  most 
cruel  enemy" — we  cannot  but  confess,  that  his  promotion  was 
a  curious  phenomenon  in  the  history  of  human  events.  The 
cardinal,  however,  is  so  far  just  as  to  allow,  that  he  was 
"  a  lawful  pope;"  and,  with  some  good-nature,  he  seriously 
labours  to  refute  the  idle  tale,  which  had  asserted  tha  the 
procured  his  elevation  to  the  papacy  by  his  former  "  compact 
with  Satan."1 

We  now  behold  a  philosopher,  who  was  confessedly  the 
first  man  of  the  age,  seated  in  the  chair  of  Peter;  but  what- 
ever may  be  his  virtues,  or  his  learning,  or  however  ardent 
hi*  wishes,  too  short  a  span  will  be  allowed  to  his  exertions, 
either  to  dissipate  the  ignorance  of  the  ecclesiastical  order,  or 
to  raise  it  from  the  abyss  of  degradation  in  which  it  was  over- 
whelmed. That,  from  his  tried  character,  and  the  permanent 
impressions  of  his  mind,  his  exertions  would  have  been  sin- 
cere, cannot  admit  of  a  doubt.  He  had  made  the  bishop  of 
Orleans,  in  the  Rheimish  synod,  say,  or  he  had  said  it  for 
him:  "Rome!  how  much  thou  meritest  our  tears,  who, 
having  produced  the  luminaries  of  former  days,  hast  now 
spread  around  thee  a  portentous  darkness,  which  future  gene- 
rations will  mention  with  astonishment."  How  glorious  then 
would  to  him  have  been  the  task  of  dispersing  this  hideous 
obscurity,  and  of  bringing  back  the  days  of  the  Leos  and  the 
Gregories,  whose  names  he  feelingly  repeats!  But  whatever 
were  his  views  of  reformation,  they  were  finally  closed  by  a 
period  of  three  short  years. 

Had  any  controversy  concerning  the  prerogative  of  the 
Roman  see,  or  the  rights  of  the  episcopal  order — similar  to 
that  in  the  cause  of  Arnulphus  and  his  own — occurred  during 
the  pontificate  of  Sylvester,  it  would  have  been  interesting  to 
remark,  by  what  process  of  argumentation  the  successor  of 
Peter  would  have  evaded  the  obvious  application  to  himself 
of  his  former  doctrines  and  assertions.  In  a  council  held  in 
Rome,  at  which  Otho  attended,  in  order  to  satisfy  some  com- 
plaints of  the  bishop  of  Hildesheim,  Sylvester  showed  great 
moderation,  and  even  permitted  other  councils  on  the  same 
subject  to  be  assembled  in  Germany;  notwithstanding  the 
solemn  decision  which  was  pronounced  by  his  own  synod  and 

1  Baronius,  sub  an.  OD:I. 


144       LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

himself.  The  legate  Frederic,  who  was  deputed  from  Rome 
on  the  occasion,  appeared  before  the  Germans  with  unusual 
splendour,  himself  habited  in  papal  attire,  as  the  representa- 
tive of  the  pontiff,  and  his  horses  decorated  with  trappings 
of  scarlet.  In  1002,  Otho  III.  died  in  Italy;  and  Sylvester, 
in  the  spring  of  the  following  year. 

I  shall  not,  I  think,  be  blamed  for  bringing  before  the  reader 
the  principal  events  of  the  life  of  this  extraordinary  personage. 
He  has  seen  him  in  the  different  capacities  of  a  scholar  and  a 
teacher:  admired  his  various  attainments;  listened  to  his  elo- 
quence; and  followed  him,  as  he  advanced,  through  a  change 
of  various  fortunes,  from  high  ecclesiastical  dignities,  to  the 
zenith  of  ecclesiastical  power.  I  have  omitted  to  mention  a 
work  which  he  composed,  on  the  Art  of  Rhetoric,  and  from 
which,  he  thinks,1  the  aspirers  to  eloquence  may  draw  many 
useful  instructions.  He  was  himself,  certainly,  an  able  orator; 
and  his  language,  though  not  always  pure,  yet  vigorous  and 
animated,  appears,  by  a  pleasing  deception,  to  obliterate,  for 
a  time,  the  consciousness  of  the  forlorn  period  in  which  he 
lived.  Indeed,  had  it  been  the  fortune  of  Gerbert  to  have  lived 
in  some  more  happy  aara,  his  intellectual  height  would  have 
experienced  some  diminution.  The  surrounding  shades  gave  a 
more  striking  magnitude  to  his  talents.  I  must  now  add,  that 
he  was  a  poet;  and  though  few  are  the  specimens  of  his  talents 
in  this  line,  we  may  quote  an  epitaph,  not  void  of  poetical 
merit,  which,  when  bishop  of  Ravenna,  he  inscribed  under 
the  portrait  of  the  philosopher  Boetius. 

"  Roma  potens  dum  jura  suo  declarat  in  orbe, 
Ta  pater  et  patriae  lumen,  Severine  Boethi, 
Consulis  officio  rerum  disponis  habenas, 
Infundis  lumen  studiis,  et  cedere  nescis 
Graecorum  ingeniis :  sed  mens  divina  coercet 
Imperium  mundi.     Gladio  bacchante  Gothorum, 
Libertas  Romana  perit.     Tu  consul  et  exul, 
Insignes  titulos  prseclara  morte  relinquis. 
Nunc  decus  imperil,  summas  qui  pracgravat  artes, 
Tertius  Otto,  sua  dignum  te  judicat  aula, 
JEternumque  tui  statuit  monumenta  laboris, 
Et  bene  promeritum  meritis  exornat  honestis."2 

1  Ep.  92.  2  Ap.  Baron,  x.  in  Append. 


BOOK  IV. 


STATE  OF  LEARNING  AND  THE  ARTS  IN  THE  ELEVENTH 
AND  TWELFTH  CENTURIES. 


The  eleventh  century — The  Roman  church  :  Leo  IX.— The  Normau  settlers 
in  Italy — Its  language  affected  by  them — Gregory  VII. — The  fictitious 
donation  of  Constantiue — No  change  in  the  state  of  learning — Peter 
Damianus — The  character  of  the  poets  and  historians — Bologna 
and  Salerno — State  of  France — The  Normans  :  their  character — 
Lanfranc  —  Political  state  of  England  —  The  Norman  Conquest — 
Ingulph,  ahbot  of  Croyland — Anselm — Eadmer:  his  credulity,  and  that 
of  the  age — The  Crusades — Twelfth  century — Increased  intercourse 
with  Rome :  its  effects — New  monastic  orders — St.  Bernard — Scholas- 
ticism introduced — Peter  Abelard — Peter  the  Lombard — England — 
Oxford — Cambridge— English  historians — John  of  Salisbury — Peter  de 
Blois — Architecture  and  other  arts. 

"\VE  must  quit  the  life  and  learning  of  Gerbert,  on  which  we 
have  been  agreeably  detained,  like  travellers  on  a  spot  of 
verdure,  of  shade,  and  of  flowers,  in  the  midst  of  a  desert, 
again  to  wander  in  the  dreary  waste  of  ignorance  and  super- 
stition. There  is  a  sombre  sameness  in  this  view  of  the 
moral  state  of  man,  which  is  alleviated  only  by  a  few  thinly 
scattered  objects,  such  as  Charlemagne,  Alfred,  or  Gerbert, 
in  the  two  preceding  centuries.  As  I  pursue  my  way,  my 
eye  is,  I  own,  habitually  turned  to  Italy;  and  though  I  am 
well  apprized  that  ignorance,  and  all  the  effects  of  ignorance, 
will  long  hold  their  sway  in  that  country,  yet  a  certain  pre- 
judice still  impels  one  to  fancy,  that  light  must  necessarily 
break  forth  among  a  people  descended,  in  pari,  from  so  illus- 
trious a  stock;  where  the  recollections  of  what  their  fathers 
were  cannot  cease  to  operate;  and  where  the  monuments  of 
art,  while  they  gratify  the  eye  of  the  beholder,  tend  to  inspire 


146    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1000 

sentiments  of  taste,  and  connect  the  mind  with  literature  and 
learning. 

It  cannot  be  expected,  that,  with  the  opening  of  a  new  era, 
the  enormities,  the  weaknesses,  the  irregularities,  which  had 
so  often  insulted  the  public  eye,  should,  at  once,  cease  to  pol- 
lute and  to  degrade  the  pontifical  chair.  And  in  the  midst  of 
such  scenes  could  literature  look  for  patronage?  We  must, 
therefore,  be  prepared,  sometimes  to  behold  a  repetition  of 
similar  scenes:  and,  on  the  greater  stage  of  Christendom,  we 
shall  be  compelled  to  witness  the  clerical  vices  of  concubinage 
and  simony,  showing  themselves  with  a  more  unblushing 
front;  a  fatal  contest,  destructive  of  all  generous  patronage, 
between  the  priesthood  and  the  empire;  and  to  close  the 
scene,  we  shall  see  the  nations  of  the  west  seized  by  the 
wildest  enthusiasm,  and  contending  for  the  double  palm  of 
victory  and  martyrdom,  under  the  walls  of  Jerusalem;  regard- 
less of  every  object  which,  in  their  progress  through  nations 
more  enlightened  than  themselves,  might  have  directed  their 
attention  to  more  rational  pursuits,  or  have  excited  their  in- 
tellectual activity. 

A  writer  of  some  celebrity1  hesitates  not  to  date  the  begin- 
ning of  the  revival  of  letters  from  the  events  of  this  century. 
With  him  I  shall  also  follow  these  events;  when  the  reader 
will  be  at  liberty  to  judge  for  himself.  Having  observed  that 
many  new  principalities  about  this  time  arose,  in  different 
parts  of  Europe,  as  the  Norman  establishments  in  Sicily  and 
in  Britain — the  author  says:  "When  formerly  the  barbarians 
from  the  north  overran  the  Roman  empire,  civilized  and 
highly  cultivated  as  it  then  was,  destruction  necessarily 
marked  their  progress;  but  now,  when  their  descendants  con- 
quered, finding  ignorance  and  barbarism  established,  they  dis- 
pelled both,  and  planted  in  their  stead  the  improved  arts  and 
manners  of  polished  life:  for,  guided  by  an  invisible  power, 
the  concerns  of  this  world  are  ever  in  motion,  and  pass  from 
one  state  to  another."  This  is  loosely  said.  If  the  Normans, 
or  other  invaders,  were  themselves  civilized,  they  would  ex- 
tend civilization  ;  if  barbarous,  barbarism,  notwithstanding 
the  ever-changing  series  of  human  events,  would  be  only  the 
more  permanently  fixed.  He  does  not  prove  that  the  Nor- 
mans were  civilized;  at  least,  more  civilized  than  the  Italians 
whom  they  conquered. 

1  Denina,  Vicende-delle  Letteratura,  ii. 


TO   1200.]  LEO    IX.  147 

The  Roman  see  was  unworthily  occupied  for  many  years, 
particularly  by  Benedict  IX.,  who  was  called  to  it  by  the  venal 
Romans  when  he  had  not  completed  his  tenth  year;  but  whose 
votes  the  treasures  of  his  family  had  purchased.  The  writers 
of  the  age  dwell  with  malevolent  complacency  on  the  vices  of 
this  infant  pontiff;  and  he  continued  to  improve  in  profligacy, 
till,  unwilling  any  longer  to  bear  the  insult,  the  same  people 
drove  him  from  their  city,  and  taking  another  bribe,  elected 
the  bishop  of  Sabinum  in  his  place.  This  election  also  was 
soon  annulled;  when,  "  as  there  was  not,"  says  the  historian,1 
"  in  the  Roman  church  a  man  fit  to  occupy  its  first  station," 
a  German  was  nominated,  and,  on  his  death,  in  1049,  Leo  IX., 
himself  a  foreigner  and  bishop  of  Toul,  ascended  the  papal 
chair. 

With  Leo  a  better  era  commenced  in  the  Roman  church, 
if  we  look  to  talents  and  moral  excellence.  His  virtues  would 
have  rendered  him  conspicuous  even  in  a  more  enlightened 
age;  and  the  writers  extol  his  piety,  his  zeal,  his  activity,  his 
prudence,  and  his  learning.  We  well  know  how  to  measure 
his  learning;  and  when  we  are  told,  by  a  contemporary  clerk 
and  the  admirer  of  Leo,2  what  his  education  was,  that — with 
other  noble  youths,  he  passed  through  the  regular  course  of 
the  trivium  and  quadrivium,  with  great  applause,  and  was 
distinguished  both  in  prose  and  verse,  we  may  fairly  conclude, 
that  the  acquirements  of  Leo  were  the  acquirements  of  the 
age,  and  that  the  plan  of  studies  still  remained  without  any 
alteration.  The  work  of  this  biographer  may,  besides,  be 
considered  as  a  just  sample  of  what  the  times  could  produce. 
It  is  extravagant  in  praise,  coarse  in  diction,  undiscriminat- 
ing  in  the  choice  of  facts,  and  replete  with  puerilities.  It  is 
related,  says  he,  by  men  of  great  veracity,  that,  in  the  city 
of  Benevento,  a  cock  was  often  heard  to  repeat  the  name  of 
Leo;  while  a  dog,  in  another  quarter,  no  less  piously  uttered 
his  supplications  in  articulate  sounds.  In  the  pi'elate,  how- 
ever, it  evinced  a  quick  insight  into  character,  that  when,  on 
his  way  to  Rome,  he  accidentally  met  Hildebrand,3  a  monk, 
as  is  supposed,  in  the  celebrated  monastery  of  Clugni,  he  lis- 
tened to  his  advice;  courted  his  friendship;  made  him  tho 

1  See  Baronius.  an.  Kllli. 

2  Wibertus  in  Vita  Leon.  IX.  iii.  <ipiid  Rer.  Itol. 

3  Afterwards  tLe  celebrated  Gregory  VII. 

L  2 


148         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

companion  of  his  journey;  and,  when  seated  in  the  pontifical 
chair,  failed  not  to  follow  his  plans  for  the  overthrow  of  the 
reigning  vices. 

Had  the  zeal  of  Leo  been  restricted  to  these  enemies,  the 
failure  of  victory  would  have  been  attended  by  no  disgrace; 
but,  unfortunately,  when  young,  he  had  learnt  the  use  of  arms, 
and  gained  some  glory  in  the  field.  This  prompted  him — on 
the  invasion  of  some  territories  of  the  church  by  the  Norman 
settlers,  who  had  recently  been  called  into  Italy — to  collect  an 
army,  and  to  march  against  them.  A  battle  was  fought  near 
Civitella  in  Apulia,  in  which  the  pontifical  forces  were  de- 
feated, and  the  pontiff  himself  made  prisoner.1 

Having  mentioned  the  Norman  settlers,  I  must  remark — 
as  the  introduction  of  a  new  people  has  a  necessary  influence 
on  the  state  of  society  and  of  letters — that  they  were  of  the 
family  of  those  northern  pirates  who,  in  the  preceding  cen- 
tury, had  fixed  their  abode  in,  and  given  their  name  to,  one 
of  the  maritime  provinces  of  France,  and  whom  devotion  first 
led  into  Italy.  Their  strength  and  prowess  were  admired; 
and,  as  the  Greeks  were  still  masters  of  Calabria — whence 
they  threatened  the  Roman  territories  —  and  the  Saracens 
were  daily  extending  their  inroads  and  their  conquests,  it  was 
deemed  expedient  to  implore  the  aid  of  these  Norman  free- 
booters, who  were  famed  for  their  robust  habits  and  their 
military  qualities.  They  accepted  the  invitation:  new  bands 
daily  arrived  to  swell  their  numbers;  they  acquired  posses- 
sions, partly  by  benefactions,  as  a  reward  for  their  zeal,  and 
more  by  rapine.  The  weak  vassals  of  the  Byzantine  throne 
were  subdued;  and  when  the  Normans — under  their  chieftain 
Humphrey  and  his  brother  Robert,  surnamed  Guiscard — 
fought  at  Civitella,  the  country  of  Apulia  was  subject  to  them. 
They  had  founded  cities,  and  under  their  banners  they  could 
number  three  thousand  horsemen,  rich  in  spoil,  inured  to  arms, 
and  flushed  with  victory.2 

What  effect  the  introduction  of  a  northern  tongue  had  on 
the  fluctuating  and  daily  expiring  idiom  of  the  Latin  language, 
cannot  be  ascertained.  But  we  may  confidently  believe  that, 
while  the  causes  which  have  been  enumerated — arising  prin- 

1  Wibertus,  tlie  legendary  writer  of  the  life  of  Leo,  conceals  (10, 11)  the 
events  of  this  fatal  day  ;  nor  does  Leo  in  his  Letters  (Cone.  Gen.  ix.)  fairly 
state  them.     See  Baronhis,  sub  an.  1052,  3. 

2  See  Muratori,  Aimal.  d'ltal.  passim. 


TO  1200.]         TENACITY    OF    THE    LATIM    TONGUE.  149 

cipally  from  the  admixture  of  barbarous  invaders — continued 
to  operate,  and,  by  a  gradual  but  certain  influence,  to  dissi- 
pate the  primitive  elements — which  books  alone  could  hence- 
forth preserve — and  to  generate  new  forms  of  speech,  the 
Norman  settlers  would  contribute  their  share;  and,  as  their 
numbers  and  their  power  increased,  powerfully  accelerate  the 
effect.  In  an  earlier  period,  when  the  Goths  and  Lombards 
had  established  their  dominion  in  Italy,  the  grammatical  con- 
struction of  the  Latin  language  was  more  firmly  fixed;  and 
its  comparative  elegance  and  harmony  more  distinctly  per- 
ceived. But  the  majestic  language  of  ancient  Rome  was  now 
greatly  corrupted;  colloquial  intercourse  was  maintained  by 
an  uncouth  jargon  of  intermixed  idioms;  the  precious  works 
of  former  days  were  seldom  read,  or  read  without  any  capa- 
city to  feel,  or  any  desire  to  imitate  their  beauties.  In  this 
state  of  things,  the  final  overthrow  was  certain;  and  it  mat- 
tered little  how  soon  it  came.  A  vehicle  existed,  which,  how- 
ever rude,  was  .sufficiently  fitted  for  an  interchange  of  familiar 
ideas;  and  he  who  desired  more,  might  find  it  in  books,  or  in 
the  conversation  of  those  who  aspired  to  the  appellation  of 
learned.  But  it  must  ever  be  considered  as  a  proof,  not  only 
of  the  difficulty,  but  of  the  moral  impossibility  of  utterly  ex- 
tirpating a  language  which  has  universally  prevailed  among 
any  people.  Thus,  though,  through  the  lapse  of  many  cen- 
turies, hordes  of  barbarous  nations  had  successively  invaded 
and  occupied  the  soil  of  Italy,  not  only  its  primitive  language 
in  some  degree  subsisted,  whilst  all  the  manners  and  habits 
of  life  were  seen  to  change;  but  even  few  words  of  a  strictly 
northern  origin  were  incorporated  into  it;  and  these,  instead 
of  retaining  their  native  ruggedness,  were  assimilated  to  the 
character  of  the  southern  speech,  and  may  be  said  to  have  been 
harmonized  by  its  euphony. — I  shall  hereafter  resume  this 
interesting  subject. 

In  running  over  the  history  of  the  lives  of  the  succeeding 
pontiffs,  of  Nicholas  II.,  of  Alexander  II.,  of  Gregory  VII., 
and  of  Urban  II,,1  and  in  perusing  their  letters2 — though 
we  may  discover  many  traits  of  real  virtue,  a  strong  zeal  for 
the  suppression  of  vice,  and  a  zeal  no  less  strong  for  the  ex- 
tension of  the  Roman  prerogative,  and  the  aggrandisement  of 
its  chair — we  find  them  first  doing  but  little  for  the  advance- 

1  See  Rer.  Ital.  Script,  iii.  Baron.  Anna!.  *  Con.  Gen.  passim. 


150    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1000 

merit  of  science,  and  exhibiting  no  indications  of  taste  or  of 
eloquence.  The  style  adopted  by  Gregory — better,  perhaps, 
known  by  the  name  of  Hildebrand — is,  agreeably  to  the 
characteristics  of  his  mind,  bold,  vigorous,  and  impressive. 
On  a  former  occasion,1  speaking  of  his  epistles,  preserved  in 
nine  books,  I  said:  With  their  perusal  I  have  been  often  dis- 
gusted, for,  by  the  side  of  the  imposing  language  of  piety 
and  Christian  zeal,  we,  at  every  page,  meet  with  sentiments 
and  the  undisguised  exposition  of  views,  such  as  might  have 
fallen  from  the  lips,  and  have  been  entertained  by  the  minds 
of  men,  whose  ruling  passion  was  ambition,  and  whose  object 
was  the  subjugation  of  nations.  To  effect  this  favourite  pur- 
pose, to  increase  the  jurisdiction  of  Rome,  and  to  bend  the 
refractory  to  his  will,  not  only  Italy,  but  Germany  and  other 
states  were  convulsed;  and,  it  may  be  truly  said,  during  the 
nearly  twelve  years  of  his  pontificate,  that  the  double  sword 
of  extermination  which  he  claimed  was  never  sheathed. 
Had  the  pursuits  of  science,  and  of  the  arts  of  peace,  more 
congenial  with  the  character  of  a  first  pastor,  engaged  the 
thoughts  of  Gregory,  warmly  as  he  admired  virtue,  and  sin- 
cerely as  he  detested  vice,  it  is  not  easy  to  calculate  the 
benefits  to  the  state  of  man  which  his  mighty  powers  might 
have  achieved,  during  almost  forty  years — from  the  accession 
of  Leo  IX.,  who  conducted  him  to  Rome,  to  his  own  death 
in  1088 — the  administration  of  the  Roman  church,  that  is, 
as  things  then  stood,  the  government  of  the  Christian  world, 
was  in  his  hands.  But  the  golden  opportunity  was  suffered 
to  escape;  and,  instead  of  using  his  influence  to  disperse  the 
clouds  of  ignorance,  and  to  awaken  the  dormant  faculties  of 
the  human  race,  it  is  to  be  feared  that,  whilst  he  strenuously 
laboured  to  correct  their  vices,  he  availed  himself  of  the 
abject  superstition  in  which  they  were  sunk  to  compass  what 
was  nearest  to  his  heart,  the  aggrandisement  of  the  Roman  see. 
I  mentioned,  I  think,  the  spurious  decretals,  which,  with  no 
honourable  views,  were  palmed  upon  the  world  as  the  genuine 
productions  of  antiquity;  and  at  this  time  a  fiction  was  con- 
trived, with  more  shameless  effrontery,  under  the  denomination 
of  the  Donation  of  Constantme.  In  a  letter2  to  Michael 
Cerularius,  the  Byzantine  patriarch,  Leo  IX.  having  re- 

1  Hist,  of  the  Papal  Power,  MS. 

2  Ep.  i.  Leoii.  Coiic.  Gen.  vii. 


TO  1200.]       THE  "DONATION"  OF  CONSTANTINE.  151 

preached  him  with  the  indecency  of  his  attack  upon  the  Roman 
church,  and  having  quoted,  in  honour  of  this  church,  as  a 
decree  of  the  Nicene  council,  words  of  a  very  different  origin, 
with  an  audacious  temerity  of  imposture,  subjoins:  "  The 
most  wise  Constantine,  revering  the  high  character  of  our 
royal  priesthood,  conferred  on  Pope  Sylvester  and  his  suc- 
cessors, not  only  the  imperial  power  and  dignity,  but  invested 
them  with  its  insignia  and  its  ministers,  deeming  it  highly 
indecorous  that  he,  to  whom  God  had  given  the  empire  of 
heaven,  should  be  subject  to  any  earthly  command.  And 
that  no  doubt  of  our  dominion  may  remain;  that  you  may 
not  suspect  our  holy  church  of  building  its  claim  to  power  on 
vain  and  anile  fables,  we  will  produce  some  passages  of  that 
grant,  which  Constantine  with  his  own  hand  laid  on  the  shrine 
of  Peter,  that  truth  may  be  established,  and  falsehood  con- 
founded." He  then  gives  the  greater  part  of  that  forged 
instrument,  in  which  the  Roman  pontiff  is  declared  to  be 
supreme  in  the  church ;  the  imperial  power  is  conferred  upon 
him;  the  city  of  Rome,  the  regions  of  Italy,  and  all  the  pro- 
vinces of  the  west,  are  transferred  to  him;  and  Constantine 
moves  the  seat  of  empire  to  the  east,  "  because  it  is  not  just, 
that  an  earthly  prince  should  there  exercise  power,  where  it 
lias  pleased  heaven  to  establish  the  head  of  the  priesthood, 
and  of  the  Christian  religion." 

It  was  under  the  order  of  this  supposed  donation,  that 
Nicholas  II.  made  over  to  Robert  Guiscard  what  lands  in 
Apulia,  and  Calabria,  and  the  island  of  Sicily,  he  had  or 
should  conquer,  reserving  the  sovereignty  to  the  holy  see; 
that  Gregory  VII.  claimed  the  kingdom  of  Spain,  as,  "by 
ancient  constitutions,"  belonging  to  Peter  and  to  the  Roman 
church;1  and  that  other  pontiffs,  as  the  occasions  presented 
themselves,  disposed  of  crowns,  and  particularly  of  the  do- 
minion of  islands. 

It  has  been  pretended,  that  owing  to  the  gross  darkness  of 
the  age,  Leo,  as  well  as  his  immediate  successors,  were  really 
ignorant  of  the  forgery  of  this  celebrated  diploma.  Had  it 
then  never  occurred  to  them  to  inquire  how  it  happened  that 
a  decree,  coeval  with  the  splendid  period  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, and  so  favourable  to  Rome,  should  have  lain  so  long 
buried  in  obscurity?  or,  if  Constantine,  when  he  moved  to 

1  Ep.  iv.  ep.  ult. 


152    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1000 

the  east,  had  transferred  the  western  world  to  the  successors 
of  Peter,  why  the  grant  was  never  produced  in  so  many  op- 
portune moments  of  contention?  Were  they  so  unread  in 
history  as  not  to  have  discovered  what  was  the  division  of 
territory  made  by  Constantine  among  his  sons,  and  the  con- 
sequence of  that  division  in  a  line  of  princes  down  to  the 
extinction  of  the  western  empire?  or  would  they  say,  that  the 
whole  series  of  emperors,  and  after  them,  the  various  chiefs 
who  occupied  the  thrones  of  Europe,  were  usurpers;  or,  that 
they  held  their  crowns  as  vassals  of  the  Roman  bishop,  their 
real  sovereign  and  liege  lord? 

Michael  Cerularius,  surely,  must  have  smiled,  when  he  pe- 
rused the  contents  of  the  singular  epistle  of  Leo,  contemning, 
as  he  did,  the  general  pretensions  of  Rome  and  the  rites  of 
the  Latin  church,  of  which  the  patriarch  of  Antioch,  at  this 
time,  observed,  "  that  the  precision  which  was  found  among 
the  Greeks,  nurtured  in  study,  was  not  to  be  looked  for  there; 
and  that  if,  on  the  points  of  the  Trinity  and  incarnation,  the 
Latins  retained  a  sound  faith,  no  more  was  to  be  expected 
from  them."1  But,  whatever  the  Byzantine  prelate,  who  was 
not  immediately  interested  in  the  question,  might  think  of  the 
donation,  it  is  certain,  that  the  western  Christians,  even  the 
learned  men  amongst  them,  were  awed  into  silence;  or,  most 
probably,  they  believed  it  to  be  genuine.  They  imagined  it 
hardly  possible  that  the  bishops  of  the  Roman  church  should 
invent  or  patronise  a  forgery.  Among  the  many  evils  of  the 
times,  one  was,  that  men  of  learning  were  more  exposed  to 
imposition  than  the  ignorant.  These  read  not;  and  if  they 
possessed  some  share  of  sense  they  might  reason,  and,  on 
many  subjects,  be  inclined  to  follow  what  their  reason  sug- 
gested: but  the  former,  in  the  vanity  of  their  minds,  seizing 
with  avidity,  and  without  discernment,  whatever  was  said  to 
bear  the  venerable  impress  of  antiquity,  would  not  hesitate  to 
prefer  forged  decretals,  or  the  diploma  of  Constantine,  to  the 
sober  and  really  genuine  productions  of  the  most  enlightened 
age.  But  I  cannot  be  persuaded  to  think  that  the  extraordi- 
nary sagacity  of  Hildebrand  did  not  penetrate  the  real  charac- 
ter of  the  newly  invented  deed,  on  which  he  claimed  for  his 
see  the  dominion  of  the  western  world.  These  pretensions,  I 
am  aware,  he  sometimes  rested  on  the  broad  basis  of  spiritual 

1  Baron.  Annal.  sub  an.  1054. 


TO   1200.]  STAGNATION  OF  LEARNING.  153 

jurisdiction;  but  the  name  of  Constantine  carried  weight  to 
the  ear  of  ignorance,  and  formed  an  authority  which  would 
not  readily  be  questioned. 

Descending  from  this  high  order  of  priesthood,  which  no 
literature  adorned,  we  find,  in  many  parts  of  Italy,  men  on 
whom  the  title  of  learned  has  been  bestowed,  and  schools  in 
which  instruction  continued  to  be  communicated.  But  the 
internal  dissensions  of  the  country,  rather  caused  than  quieted 
by  the  interrupted  presence  of  the  emperors;  the  quarrels 
between  the  priesthood  and  the  empire,  in  which  all  the  orders 
of  the  state  were  involved;  and  the  general  dissoluteness  of 
manners,  which  was  particularly  striking  amongst  the  clergy, 
in  the  vices  of  concubinage  and  simony — these,  and  many 
other  associated  causes,  opposed  as  powerful  a  barrier  to  the 
pursuits  of  science  as  any  which  we  have  hitherto  considered. 
When,  turning  over  the  annals  of  Italy,  men  looked  back  to 
the  days  of  the  Goths  and  Lombards,  they  are  said  to  have 
sighed  for  their  return;  for,  though  ignorance  joined  to  bar- 
barism then  prevailed,  there  was  a  strength  in  the  arm  of 
government  which  checked  the  intemperance  of  faction,  and, 
preserving  social  order,  secured  tranquillity,  at  least,  to  the  few 
votaries  of  science. 

As  it  happened,  in  the  scholastic  controversies  of  Greece, 
some  exercise  was  now  given  to  the  public  mind  by  the  ques- 
tion about  investitures;  and  learning  was  displayed  on  both 
sides,  as  the  champions  in  the  quarrel  inclined  to  the  supposed 
rights  of  princes,  or  to  the  sacred  prerogative  of  the  church. 
The  study  of  theology,  indeed,  in  which  many  interests  were, 
at  all  times,  involved,  though  its  modes  of  investigation  varied, 
never  ceased  to  be  extensively  cultivated. 

Whilst  the  author  of  the  History  of  Italian  Literature1 
continues  to  lament  the  gloomy  aspect  of  the  times,  he  seems 
to  fancy  that  there  had  been  some  little  advance  to  improve- 
ment; and  it  must  be  owned,  that  the  list  of  his  celebrated 
men,  in  every  department  of  science,  is  not  contemptible. 
But  he  travels  far  from  home;  and  when  in  France,  or  Eng- 
land, a  scholar  presents  himself,  who,  in  the  opinion  of  any 
writers,  drew  his  first  breath  in  Italy,  he  appropriates  the 
glory  to  his  country,  and  inscribes  his  name  amongst  the 
worthies.  This  may  not  be  always  just.  The  man  of  letters 

1  Storia  delln  Letterata  Ital.  iii. 


154         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

deems  that  country  to  be  his  own  where  he  studied,  where  he 
lived,  and  to  which  he  owes  his  fame.  An  intercourse  of 
mutual  advantage  was  maintained  among  the  scholars  of 
France  and  of  Italy;  and  the  greater  number  of  scholars 
repaired  to  the  point  where  the  professors  were  most  eminent. 
Of  these,  as  they  happened  to  find  opportunities  of  obtaining 
a  provision  in  the  church,  or  in  the  state,  many  never  re- 
turned; and  as  the  use  of  the  Latin  language  was  common  to 
all,  it  mattered  little  from  what  soil  the  professor  or  the  pupil 
came.  But  the  convenient  intercourse  of  which  I  speak  was 
principally  supported  by  the  monasteries.  Monks  of  the  same 
order,  however  separated  by  climate  or  country,  considered 
themselves  as  children  of  the  same  family.  When  circum- 
stances rendered  it  necessary  or  expedient,  they  gave  mutual 
aid;  they  had  a  common  sympathy  in  the  fame  of  learning, 
or  the  reproach  of  ignorance;  and  they  passed,  as  commanded, 
from  house  to  house,  taking  with  them  their  proper  stores, 
and  dispensing  where  there  was  most  need  of  the  gift.  It  is 
evident  that  such  an  arrangement,  whilst  the  public  schools 
remained  attached  to  the  convents,  was  productive  of  signal 
benefits;  and  in  this  and  the  following  century,  what  learning 
there  was,  and  what  scientific  men  there  were,  were  contained 
in,  or  proceeded  exclusively  from  their  walls. 

One  of  these  was  Peter  Damianus,  first  a  recluse,  and  after- 
wards bishop  of  Ostia,  a  man  celebrated  for  his  learning,  and 
without  whose  agency,  through  the  lapse  of  many  years, 
few  concerns  of  moment  were  transacted.  His  letters,  which 
are  not  void  of  elegance,  and  some  of  his  other  works,  may 
be  read  with  pleasure.  Lamenting,  on  a  certain  occasion, 
after  the  battle  of  Civitella,  the  feuds  which  often  arose 
between  princes  and  the  ministers  of  the  altar,  when  the  lat- 
ter have  had  recourse  to  arms,  he  says;  "If,  in  defence  of 
the  faith  itself,  it  be  never  allowable  to  take  up  arms,  shall 
squadrons  draw  their  swords  to  protect  its  transient  posses- 
sions? When  good  men  prevail,  they  seek  not  the  death  of 
heretics  nor  of  idolators;  and  shall  the  Christian,  for  the  vilest 
interest,  be  permitted  to  spill  his  brother's  blood?  Should  it 
be  objected  that  the  pontiff  Leo  often  engaged  in  martial 
enterprises,  I  must  still  maintain,  that  my  words  are  not  less 
true.  The  personal  merits  of  men  change  not  the  nature  of 
good  and  evil.  Let  every  ecclesiastical  cause  be  decided  by 
the  laws,  or  by  synodical  decrees,  whilst  we  are  unsullied  by 


TO  1200.]  PETER  DAMIANUS.  155 

the  reproach  to  which  every  appeal  to  arms  must  expose  us."1 
The  opinions  of  Damianus  were  not  always  thus  moderate — 
particularly  on  the  character  and  extent  of  the  Roman  prero- 
gative— when  his  appointment  to  the  see  of  Ostia  had  brought 
him  nearer  to  the  source  of  power.2  But  few  men,  whatever 
may  be  their  probity  or  talents,  have  sufficient  hardihood  or 
resolution  to  oppose  a  torrent,  when  the  mass  of  society  is 
hurried  away  by  the  stream.  The  bishop  of  Veletri  being 
chosen  by  a  powerful  faction  to  succeed  to  Stephen  IX.,  under 
the  name  of  Benedict,  and  Hildebrand,  at  the  same  time, 
causing  another  to  be  elected,  Damianus  hesitated;  but  he 
finally  voted  for  the  last  named,  observing,  that,  "  could  he 
have  explained  a  single  line  in  any  homily,  he  would  not  have 
opposed  the  bishop  of  Veletri."  How  this  could  be,  while 
the  Latin  language  was  universally  spoken,  I  know  not;  but 
the  good  bishop,  let  me  add,  was  not  obstinate,  if  he  was 
ignorant.  He  therefore  submitted  to  his  rival,  and  withdrew.3 

I  have  observed,  that  no  inducements  were  wanting  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  particular  studies  with  which  the  great 
controversies  of  the  age  were  connected;  but  these  topics  of 
contention  related  to  ecclesiastical  policy,  or  order,  as  con- 
fined to  the  Latins;  or  to  more  abstruse  inquiries,  as  pursued 
by  the  Greeks;  and  by  no  means  tended  to  inspire  better 
modes  of  intellectual  cultivation.  Indeed,  seriously  to  imagine 
that  this  could  be  compatible  with  the  general  state  of  man- 
ners and  pursuits  would  be  no  less  absurd,  than  to  look  for 
the  blossoms  of  spring  whilst  all  vegetation  is  suspended  by 
the  inclemency  of  the  winter's  frost.  But  eloquence,  poetry, 
and  history,  and  all  the  branches  of  the  Trivium  and  Qua- 
drivium  still  found  admirers,  and  were  studied.  "We  are 
even  told,  that  the  Greek  language  was  acquired  by  many, 
principally  for  the  purposes  of  disputation;  but  we  are  not 
told  that  the  classical  authors  of  Greece  were  read. 

For  eloquence  we  must  look  to  the  sermons  of  preachers, 
or  to  the  homilies  of  churchmen;  for  by  no  other  men  was 

1  Pet.  Darn.  ep.  ad  Firmin.  apiid  Baron,  milt  nn.  105-3.  These  just  notions 
the  cardinal  treats  as  the  wailing  effusions  of  the  discontented  hermit ;  and 
the  doctrine  he  pronounces  to  be  licniicul.  "  They  who  take  from  the  chair 
of  I'eter  one  of  the  swor.U,"  lie  observes,  (ibid.)  "leaving  only  that  which 
is  spiritual,  arc,  by  the  decisions  of  Catholic  faith,  convicted  of  heresy." 

*  See  Baron.  Annul,  sub  tin.  lo:>'t. 

»   Ibid. 


Io6         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [_A.D.   1000 

the  art  regularly  pursued.  But  poets,  or  rather  versifiers, 
were  numerous  in  every  convent,  whilst  no  subject  appeared 
to  be  too  intractable  for  their  poetical  versatility.  •„  In  history, 
regarded  merely  as  a  repository  of  facts,  there  is  no  dearth  of 
compositions;1  and  a  passage  occasionally  occurs  which  is 
not  positively  repulsive.  What  most  disgusts  is  the  barbarous 
recurrence  of  rhymes.  A  poet  of  Mount  Casino  thus  begins 
to  sing  the  praises  of  St.  Peter: 

"  Agnus  adest,  cuneti  qui  tollit  crimina  mundi; 
Protinus  Andreas,  quern  post  crucifixit  Egeas, 
Prosequitur,  tandem  lucem  transegit;  eundem 
Cum  Christo  fratri  post  curat  noti/?cart; 
Attrahit  hunc  secum  valeat  quo  cernere  Jesum  : 
Hunc  Deus  ut  vidit  Simonem,  quern  nomine  scivit, 
Nomen  mutavit,  quem  Cepham  jpse  vocavit." 

Among  the  many  authors  who  wrote  the  life  of  the  celebrated 
countess  Matilda,  the  friend  of  Gregory  VII.  and  the  great 
benefactress  to  the  Roman  see,  Doniro  of  Canossa  is  the 
most  distinguished.2  He  was  personally  acquainted  with  the 
lady,  and  writes  from  his  own  observation,  stating  many 
interesting  particulars  relative  to  her  own  life,  and  the  lives 
of  her  progenitors.  We  may  lament,  perhaps,  that  Doniro 
would  be  a  poet,  as  nothing,  certainly,  can  be  less  harmo- 
nious than  his  lines.  His  work  is  in  two  books,  divided  into 
chapters,  and  written  in  hexameter  and  leonine  verses. 
Having  mentioned  how  much  Matilda  was  everywhere 
admired,  the  poet  adds: 

"  Responsum  cunctis  hsec  dat  sine  murmure  turbis ; 
Hsec  hilaris  semper  facie,  placida  quoque  mente. 
Haec  apices  dictat,  scit  Theutonicam  bene  linguam ; 
Hsec  loquitur  latam  quin  Francigenamque  loquelam. 
Hsec  Longobardos  nutrit,  regit,  etjfacit  altos." 

To  the  knowledge  of  languages  she  joined,  it  seems,  mental 
application;  and  she  possessed  many  books: 

"  Nullus  ea  prscsul  studiosior  invenietur. 
Copia  librorum  non  deficit  huicve  bonorum, 
Libros  ex  cunctis  habet  artibus  atque  figuris." 

Doniro  had  intended  to  dedicate  his  work  to  the  countess, 
1  See  Rerum  Ital.  Script,  v.  -  Ibid.  337. 


TO  1200.]  POETS  AND  HISTORIANS.  157 

but  her  death  frustrated  the  design;  when  he  subjoined  a 
final  chapter,  in  which  he  describes  the  incidents  of  her  last 
hour.  The  news  of  her  death  had  shocked  him  much: 

"  Lsetitia  mentis  libros  dum  necto  tabellis ; 
Nuncius  advenit,  qui  me  nimis  obstupefecif, 
Dicens  extinctam  prsetaxatam  comitissam. 
Vires  diruptse  mihi  sunt,  subitoque  medullac, 
Palpebris  dulcis  somni  dormitio  fugit, 
Visura  frigeseunt,  simul  ossa  caroque  liquescunt, 
Qiueque  laborabam  sunt  e  manibus  vacuata." 

By  an  acrostic  in  the  initial  letters  of  the  concluding  lines, 
the  poet  mentions  his  name  and  office: 

"  Presbiter  hunc  librum  fineit,  Monachusque  Doniro." 

Beside  the  historical  versifiers,  there  were  historians,  or 
chroniclers,  who  did  not  rise  above  the  level  of  barbarous 
prose;  and  of  these  many  works  are  still  extant.1  When 
contented  to  record  the  events  of  their  own  times,  it  is  gene- 
rally agreed,  though  puerile  tales  are  often  introduced,  that 
they  are  sincere  and  deserving  of  credit;  but  when  they  have 
to  relate  the  transactions  of  former  years,  no  fable  is  too 
gross  or  unfounded  for  their  belief.  A  certain  Sicilian 
abbot,  having  compiled  a  history  of  the  country,2  addresses 
himself,  at  its  close,  to  his  Norman  master,  requesting  his 
royal  protection  to  his  convent:  "  For  if  Virgil,"  he  says, 
"  the  prince  of  poets,  received  from  Augustus,  as  a  recom- 
pence  for  two  verses  made  in  his  praise,  the  government  of 
Naples  and  of  the  province  of  Calabria,  with  better  reason, 
in  return  for  this  work,  and  to  promote  the  good  of  your  soul,, 
may  we  look  for  the  reward  which  we  petition."  Yet,  with 
all  their  defects,  these  chronicles  are  highly  valuable;  and 
Muratori,  in  his  Annals  of  Italy,  has  drawn  much  from  them. 
"Without  their  aid,  indeed,  the  dark  series  of  these  revolving 
ages  would  be  little  more  than  a  rueful  blank. 

The  homely  talents,  invigorated  by  a  little  industry,  which 
could  form  such  historians  and  versifiers  as  the  times  exhi- 
bited, were  not  sufficient  to  lead  the  student  into  the  more 
thorny  paths  of  philosophy,  whether  confined  to  the  opera- 
tions of  mind,  or  extended  to  researches  into  nature  and 
nature's  laws.  But,  as  we  shall  see,  there  were  excep- 

1  See  Rerum  Ital.  Script,  v.  passim.  -  Ibid.  v.  044. 


158         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

tions  to  this  rule:  and  while  Italy  lamented  that,  by  migra- 
tions from  her  soil,  the  pursuits  of  the  sublimer  sciences  were 
neglected,  she  could  boast  that  her  children  carried  their 
light  into  other  regions.  Either  the  troubles  of  the  country, 
from  which  Koine  herself  was  seldom  free,  or,  what  I  rather 
believe,  a  real  dearth  of  able  masters,  was  the  cause  of  these 
migrations.1 

Bologna  now  began  to  be  celebrated  for  her  schools  of  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  jurisprudence,  to  which  men  soon  crowded 
for  instruction  from  all  parts  of  Europe;  whilst  medicine 
was,  at  the  same  time,  cultivated  with  no  less  ardour  at  Sa- 
lerno. What  were  the  causes,  in  these  cities,  which  gave 
rise  to  the  peculiar  studies  of  law  and  medicine,  when  both 
had  so  long  lain  neglected,  may  be  sought  in  the  authors  who 
have  discussed  the  subject;2  but  to  me  the  event  presents  a 
favourable  omen.  I  am  well  aware,  that  polite  literature  has 
no  immediate  connexion  with  the  labours  of  the  jurist  or  the 
physician,  as  a  proof  of  which  I  might  adduce  the  many  pon- 
derous comments  which  soon  proceeded  from  the  schools  of 
Bologna;  and  more  particularly  the  celebrated  Medecina 
Salernitana,  a  work  in  373  leonine  verses,  which  is  at  once  a 
specimen  of  the  science  and  the  barbarism  of  the  age.  But 
the  powers  of  the  mind  were  thus  actively  employed;  and, 
however  slow  the  progress,  they  would  be  led  on  from  object 
to  object,  till,  the  field  of  inquiry  being  enlarged,  the  aid  of 
the  politer  arts  would  be  called  in,  the  embellishments  of 
style  consulted;  and  the  dawn  of  a  better  taste  and  a  happier 
era  begin. 

I  wUl  now  briefly  mention  what  was  the  state  of  learning 
in  France  and  Britain,  which  will  particularly  bring  before  us 
those  men  who,  having  quitted  the  soil  of  Italy,  established 
themselves  in  those  less  genial  climates. 

On  the  extinction  of  the  Carlovingian  race,  in  987,  often 
distinguished  by  the  ridiculous  epithets  of  the  bald,  the  stam- 
merer, the  fat,  and  the  simple,  a  new  dynasty  commenced  in 
the  person  of  Hugh  Capet;  and  his  successors,  particularly 
Robert,  showed  themselves  not  altogether  unworthy  of  a 
throne.  Robert  himself  was  not  void  of  science,  as  he  had 
received  instruction  from  the  celebrated  Gerbert,  and  even 

1  See  Storia  della  Lett.  Ital.  iii.  also  Annal.  d'ltal.  passim. 

2  See  Tirabosclii,  iii.  Giannone  Storia  Civil,  di  Napol.  x. 


TO  1200.]  STATE  OF  FRANCE.  159 

composed  some  hymns  which  were  sung  in  the  church.  The 
state  of  learning  under  him,  therefore,  made  a  little  advance; 
and,  through  the  course  of  the  century,  some  comparatively 
learned  individuals  adorned  the  church,  and  more  were  found 
within  the  walls  of  convents.  Among  the  first  were  Fulbert, 
bishop  of  Chartres;  his  scholar,  Berenger,  ai-chdeacon  of 
Angers,  who,  though  a  heretic  and  the  author  of  many 
troubles,  possessed  talents,  and  was  amply  provided  with 
scholastic  subtlety;  and  the  many  champions  whom  the 
opinions  of  Berenger  led  into  the  field  of  controversy.  Of 
these,  the  greater  part  were  monks;1  and  let  me  repeat  an 
observation  which  I  have  before  made,  that,  though  some  real 
evil  might  be  consequent  on  the  rise  of  heresies  in  the 
various  periods  of  the  church,  yet,  in  such  times  as  these, 
this  evil  was  compensated  by  no  small  portion  of  good.  The 
minds  of  many  were  roused  into  action;  talents  were  elicited; 
researches  were  provoked;  the  writings  of  the  ancient  doctors 
of  the  church  were  read;  in  one  word,  men  who  would  have 
existed  in  apathy,  and  died  in  obscurity,  emerged  into  notice, 
and  rendered  some  service  to  the  cause  of  truth. 

The  improving  state  of  things  in  France  calls  me  to  a  por- 
tion of  history  immediately  connected  with  it,  which,  while 
it  forms  an  interesting  epoch  in  the  events  of  that  country, 
was  soon  to  establish  a  new  era  in  our  own.  The  northern 
pirates,  who  had  long  infested  the  western  coasts  of  France, 
early  in  the  tenth  century,  about  the  year  912,  under  their 
leader  Rollo,  again  entered,  and  forcibly  took  possession  of 
one  of  the  maritime  provinces.  Hence  they  extended  their 
depredations  far  into  the  country;  when  Charles  the  Simple, 
unable  to  resist  their  progress,  listened  to  the  cries  of 
his  people,  and  offered  terms  to  the  invaders.  The  terms 
were:  that  Rollo  should  espouse  his  daughter  Gisela,  and 
keep  possession  of  Neustria,  on  condition  that  he  did  homage 
for  the  territory,  and  embraced  the  Christian  faith.  To  men 
who,  it  is  said,  were  utterly  void  of  all  religion,  there  could 
be  no  room  for  hesitation:  the  conditions  were  accepted,  and 
the  leader  and  his  army  were  baptized.  These  were  our 
Gorman  ancestors. 

When  we  look  to  the  character  of  these  men,  as  we  saw  it 
portrayed  in  their  forefathers  of  the  Gothic,  the  Vandal,  the 

1  See  Dupiu  and  other  ecclesiastical  writers. 


160    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1000 

Lombard,  and  the  Saxon  line,  and  as  it  is  delineated  in  them- 
selves, when  they  first  settled  in  Normandy,  our  astonishment 
cannot  but  be  excited  by  the  change  which  was  soon  produced. 
They  were  fierce  and  untractable,  void  of  instruction,  and 
addicted  to  no  pursuits  but  those  of  war  and  the  chase. 
What  could  have  so  rapidly  mitigated  their  barbarous  habits? 
For  when  we  speak  of  reformation  in  a  people — from  a  state 
of  savage  existence  to  the  arts  and  refinements  of  civil  life, 
and  from  the  most  dense  ignorance  to  the  love  of  letters — 
the  change  seems  to  require  the  slow  and  laborious  operation 
of  many  years.  The  comparative  superiority  of  their  neigh- 
bours, not  in  martial  prowess,  but  in  intellectual  endowments, 
excited  a  desire  of  imitation;  both  curiosity  and  ambition 
prompted  them  to  procure  the  means  of  instruction.  The 
influence  of  religion  came  opportunely  in  aid  of  other  motives, 
to  generate  habits  of  social  order,  and  fix  attention  on  the 
cultivation  of  the  mind.  The  same  sentiment  which  caused 
convents  to  be  founded,  promoted  the  erection  of  schools.  It 
was  now  that  masters  came  from  a  distance:  and  not  many 
years  of  the  ensuing  century  had  elapsed,  when  the  children 
of  these  originally  piratical  marauders  rescued  the  southern 
parts  of  Italy  from  oppression;  when  they  formed  settlements, 
and  introduced  a  new  system  of  laws;  the  elements  of  a 
sounder  polity;  a  spirit  of  liberty  and  independence. 

Among  the  celebrated  men  who,  at  this  time,  visited  Nor- 
mandy, was  Lanfranc,  a  native  of  Pavia.  He  lost  his  parents 
in  early  life,  when,  quitting  his  native  city,  he  travelled  in 
search  of  learning,  and,  after  some  years,  returned,  richly 
accomplished  in  the  profane  sciences  and  in  the  knowledge  of 
the  laws.  In  pleading,  his  eloquence  was  admired,  and  his 
decisions  gained  the  applause  of  the  most  experienced  magis- 
trates. It  is  not  known  why,  when  thus  prosperously  en- 
gaged, he  again  left  Pavia,  crossed  the  Alps,  and  traversed 
France;  and,  about  the  year  1036,  fixed  his  residence  at 
Avranches  in  Normandy,  surrounded  by  many  scholars.  His 
mind  was  yet  unsettled;  and  as  the  cloister  was  at  that  time 
the  general  asylum  of  piety  and  of  learning,  Lanfranc  turned 
his  eyes  towards  a  monastery.  He  was  shown  to  that  of 
Bea — so  called  from  a  rivulet  which  flowed  by  in  the  vale, 
and  then  just  built  by  the  abbot  Hellouin.  To  the  walls  of 
this  sacred  edifice  he  retired,  with  a  view,  it  seems,  of  secluding 
himself  from  the  world,  and  of  prosecuting  the  contemplations 


TO  1200.J  LANFRANC.  161 

of  a  sublimer  philosophy.  But  his  retreat  was  soon  discovered; 
and  so  high  was  his  reputation,  and  so  ardent  the  general  thirst 
of  knowledge,  that  the  confluence  of  pupils  to  attend  his  lec- 
tures almost  exceeds  belief.  Amongst  these  were  "  clerks, 
the  sons  of  gentlemen,  masters  of  transcendent  renown, 
powerful  chiefs,  and  individuals  of  high  nobility."  Contem- 
porary writers,  or  rather  those  nearest  to  the  times,  dwell 
with  rapture  on  the  praises  of  Bea  and  its  academic  exercises, 
in  which  the  rules  of  a  pure  Latinity  are  said  to  have  been 
delivered,  and  the  liberal  arts,  in  their  various  branches,  to 
have  been  taught.  But  his  philosophy,  as  we  might  expect, 
was  dialectics,  or  the  art  of  subtle  disputation;  and  we  hear 
of  his  scholars,  that  they  everywhere  proclaimed  their  skill, 
and  were  prone  to  engage  in  controversy.  A  pedantic  clerk, 
surrounded  by  a  gorgeous  train  of  attendants,  waited  on  the 
philosopher.  Lanfranc  conversed  with  him ;  when,  perceiving 
the  extreme  scantiness  of  his  knowledge,  he  laid  a  cross-row 
or  alphabet  before  him,  "  by  an  Italian  pleasantry  ridiculing 
the  ignorance  of  the  pedant."  But  this  instance  of  jocularity 
exposed  its  author  to  serious  dangers.1 

Many  eminent  scholars  issued  from  the  school  of  Bea. 
Amongst  these  were,  the  pope  Alexander  II.;  Guimond, 
bishop  of  Aversa;  Ives  of  Chartres,  the  restorer  of  the  jus 
canonicum  in  France;  the  celebrated  Anselm;  and  many 
others,  whose  names  are  recorded.  Some  years  after  this, 
Lanfranc,  being  promoted  to  the  see  of  Canterbury,  visited 
Rome;  and  when  the  courtiers,  seeing  the  respect  which  was 
shown  him  by  Alexander  at  his  first  audience,  expressed  their 
surprise,  the  pontiff  observed:  "  It  was  not  because  he  is 
primate  of  England,  that  I  rose  to  meet  him;  but  because  I 
was  his  pupil  at  Bea,  and  there  sat  at  his  feet  to  listen  to  his 
instructions."2 

Among  the  admirers  of  Lanfranc  was  William,  the  young 
duke  of  Normandy,  the  bastard  son  of  duke  Robert,  sur- 
iiarned  the  devil.  He  admitted  him  to  the  most  familiar  con- 
fidence; he  was  directed  by  his  advice;  and  he  raised  him  to 
the  government  of  a  new  abbey,  which  he  had  founded  in  the 
city  of  Caen.  At  this  time,  Lanfranc  had  been  twenty  years 

1  See  Milo  rri>i>in.  \Vil.  Malmesb.  Gemrnet.  and  others  quoted  by  Tira- 
boschi,  Hrucker,  and  Fleury. 

2  In  vita  Lauf.  0. 

M 


162         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

at  Bea,  a  period  highly  interesting  to  the  cause  of  literature, 
during  which,  it  may  be  said,  that  from  the  celebrity  of  its 
schools,  and  the  efforts  of  the  many  able  men  they  had  pro- 
duced, a  foundation  was  laid,  on  which  the  institutions,  styled 
universities,  were  established,  which,  some  years  later,  tilled 
the  provinces  of  Europe.  Whilst  Lanfhmc  was  at  Caen,  he 
engaged  in  the  Berengarian  controversy;1  and  he  was  occupied 
in  this  and  in  the  concerns  of  his  convent  when  duke  AVilliam, 
having  conquered  England,  invited  the  learned  abbot,  in  the 
year  1070,  to  undertake  the  charge  of  the  English  church. 

Since  we  spoke  of  England — when  Alfred  reigned,  and 
more  recently  when  archbishop  Dunstan  supported  the  cha- 
racter of  learning  by  his  talents,  and  encouraged  the  pursuit 
by  his  munificence — the  annals  of  the  times  exhibit  an  interval 
of  peculiar  sterility.  No  period  was  ever  more  adverse  to 
letters,  in  their  humblest  walks,  and  to  the  repose  which  their 
cultivation  demands.  Their  warmest  friend,  therefore,  in 
tracing  back  events,  would  find  little  to  record  but  war  and 
devastation,  which  he  could  occasionally  relieve  only  by 
episodes  of  pilgrimages  to  Rome,  by  theological  brawls,  or 
legendary  tales. 

The  Danes  continued  their  incursions  as  occasion  offered; 
and  sometimes  sailing  up  the  Thames,  the  Severn,  or  the 
Humber,  carried  fire  and  sword  into  the  heart  of  the  country. 
In  the  meantime,  such  of  their  countrymen  as  had  obtained  a 
right  of  settlement  in  former  expeditions,  or  who,  by  an  im- 
prudent policy,  were  employed  as  auxiliary  troops,  increased 
the  general  consternation,  by  the  outrages  which  they  perpe- 
trated, and  by  the  willingness  which  they  showed  to  co- 
operate with  the  external  enemy.  Resistance  was  indeed 
made,  but  often  without  effect;  for  with  the  occasional  weak- 
ness of  the  reigning  prince;  the  divisions  of  the  nobility;  the 
treachery  of  some;  the  cowardice  of  others;  the  want  of 
concert  in  all;  there  could  be  no  wisdom  in  council,  no  con- 
duct in  the  field.  The  respite  from  pillage,  or  the  departure 
of  the  foe,  which  was  sometimes  purchased  by  large  sums  of 
money,  served  only  to  invite  the  attacks  of  more  needy  adven- 
turers. This  was  for  many  years  the  melancholy  state  of 
things;  when,  in  the  reign  of  Ethelred,  about  the  beginning 

1  On  the  manner  of  Christ's  presence  in  the  Eucharist.  Bereuger  ad- 
mitted the  real  presence,  but  denied  the  change  of  substance. 


TO   1200.]  THE  DANE?  IN  ENGLAND.  163 

of  the  eleventh  century,  and  when  the  Danes  were  widely 
settled  in  many  parts  of  the  kingdom,  the  bloody  scheme  of  a 
general  massacre  was  adopted.  To  what  extent  it  succeeded 
cannot  be  shown;  but  the  barbarous  policy  proved  most  fatal 
to  the  actors.  Sweyn  landed;  and  from  this  period  what  had 
before  been  related  of  the  miseries  of  the  country  seems  light, 
when  compared  with  the  scenes  of  devastation  which  were 
now  everywhere  beheld.  Ethelred  fled,  and  prince  Edmund, 
alone,  for  some  time,  withstood  the  shock;  till  he  also  died, 
and  Canute,  the  son  of  Sweyn,  in  1017,  ascended  the  English 
throne.1 

The  Danes  had  previously  embraced  the  Christian  faith; 
and  the  affinity  of  their  language  to  that  of  the  Saxon  natives, 
and  no  striking  discrepancy  in  manners  and  laws,  seemed  to 
invite  both  nations  to  coalesce  into  one  united  people.  Bat 
the  vindictive  regrets  of  a  conquered  people  are  not  readily 
effaced;  and  the  conquerors,  as  is  usual,  affected  a  superiority, 
to  which  they  might  think  that  they  were  entitled  by  success. 
They  even  professed  themselves  better  adepts  in  the  art  of 
social  enjoyment,  and  aspired  to  more  refined  modes.  It  was 
observed  by  them,  and  not  without  disgust,  tljat  they  combed 
their  hair  once  a  day;  bathed  themselves  once  a  week;  and 
frequently  changed  their  clothes.  These  were  deemed  acts 
of  effeminacy.  What  progress  they  had  made  in  intellectual 
improvement  is  not  related.  Canute  himself  was  certainly 
deserving  of  the  throne  which  he  had  conquered;  and,  as  soon 
as  circumstances  would  permit,  it  seemed  his  wish,  by  an 
equal  distribution  of  justice,  to  make  all  his  subjects  happy. 
There  was  much  vigour  in  hi.<  government,  and  tranquillity 
everywhere  prevailed.  He  built  churches,  and  repaired  or 
endowed  convents.  His  sense  of  security  in  his  English  do- 
minions was  such,  that  he  twice  visited  the  kingdoms  of  Den- 
mark and  Norway,  of  which  he  retained  the  sovereignty;  and 
once  undertook  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome.  Here  he  made  a  con- 
siderable stay.  The  motive  which  prompted  this  pious  jour- 
ney is  stated  by  himself,  and  is  an  object  of  curiosity:  "  I  had 
learned,"  he  <ays,  '•  from  wise  men,  that  the  holy  Peter  re- 
ceived  great  power  of  binding  and  loosing;  that  he  carried 
the  keys  of  the  heavenly  kingdom;  and  therefore  I  thought 
it  particularly  advantageous  to  beg  his  patronage."2  He  died 

1  See  the  various  old  Knglisb  writer*. 
. .  Cunt  op.  Spelman  Cone.  535. 

M2 


164         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

in  1035.  The  reigns  of  his  two  successors  did  not  exceed 
an  interval  of  six  years,  when  the  throne  was  left  vacant  for 
a  prince  of  the  Saxon  line.1 

Though  under  the  Danish  dynasty,  as  far  as  can  be  col- 
lected from  our  chronicles,  nothing  seems  to  have  been 
directly  done  for  the  promotion  of  letters;  the  re-establish- 
ment of  tranquillity  and  order  must  be  deemed  a  signal 
benefit,  which  had  in  every  way  improved  the  condition  of 
the  country.  This  was  the  state  of  the  country  when 
Edward,  afterwards  surnamed  the  Confessor,  the  youngest 
son  of  the  late  Ethelred,  by  his  second  marriage  with  the 
Norman  princess,  Emma,  was  called  to  fill  the  throne  of  his 
ancestors.  He  had  lived  abroad,  chiefly,  if  not  entirely, 
amongst  his  relations  in  the  Norman  court,  where  he  con- 
tracted many  intimacies,  and  learned  to  admire  their  man- 
ners. "  He  was  almost  become  a  Frenchman."  Hence  the 
modes,  language,  and  habits  of  the  Normans  became  fashion- 
able. This  preference,  and  more  than  this,  the  honours  and 
ecclesiastical  dignities  which  were  conferred  on  many  Nor- 
mans, gave  offence.  Edward  was  a  weak  prince,  "  little  qua- 
lified," says  the  historian,2  "  to  discharge  the  duties  of  a 
throne;"  but  he  was  religious,  just,  and  beneficent.  In 
Normandy  he  might  have  acquired  some  taste  for  letters, 
though  the  schools  of  Bea  were  not  opened  during  his  resi- 
dence in  that  country;  but,  unfortunately,  attention  is  seldom 
given  to  the  education  of  exiled  princes.  But  opposing 
factions  were  softened  or  reconciled  by  the  mildness  of  his 
government;  the  English  and  Danes  were  cemented  into  one 
people;  and  we  hear  no  more  of  their  differences.  "  During 
his  reign,"  according  to  the  historian  just  quoted,  "  there  was 
no  civil  tumult  which  Avas  not  soon  suppressed;  no  foreign 
war:  and  tranquillity  prevailed  both  at  home  and  abroad." 
But  he  proceeds  to  mention  how  splendid,  contrasted  with 
those  of  their  master,  were  the  characters  of  many  nobles  of 
the  land,  whom  he  names.  He  remarks,  that  the  persuasive 
eloquence  of  earl  Godwin,  in  his  native  tongue,  was  admirable; 
and  he  represents  his  daughter  Editha,  whom  the  king  had 
married,  as  a  princess  "  in  whose  breast  all  the  liberal  arts 
might  be  said  to  reside;  but  who  was  little  qualified  for 

i  See  the  authors  as  before  quoted. 
*  Wil.  Malmesb.  in  Edw.  ii.  13. 


TO  1200.]          THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST.  165 

worldly  pursuits.  In  her  presence,  her  learning  might  ex- 
cite your  wonder;  while  you  looked  in  vain  for  modesty  of 
mind,  and  corporeal  beauty."  The  abbot  of  Croyland,  who 
knew  Editha,  is  more  indulgent:1  "  She  was  exquisitely 
beautiful,"  he  says,  "well  versed  in  letters,  peculiarly  modest, 
humble,  and,  differing  from  the  stern  manners  of  her  father 
and  brothers,  gentle,  sincere,  honourable,  and  to  no  one  ever 
gave  offence.  It  was  said  of  her, 

'  Sicut  spina  rosam,  genuit  Godwinus  Editham.' 

When  I  visited  my  father,  then  residing  at  court,  I  often 
saw  her.  She  would  stop  me,  as  I  came  from  school,  and 
ask  me  questions;  then,  turning  with  singular  pleasure  from 
the  heavy  rules  of  grammar  to  some  logical  levity,  in  which 
art  she  excelled,  she  would  entangle  me  in  some  sophism: 
but  this  was  sure  to  procure  me  some  pieces  of  money,  with 
which  she  directed  me  to  go  to  the  king's  buttery,  and  pro- 
cure some  refreshment." 

"Whatever  may  be  thought  of  this  family,  the  general 
standard  of  intellectual  proficiency  during  the  twenty-five 
years  of  Edward's  reign,  does  not  appear  to  have  been  raised 
any  higher;  for  the  same  author,2  in  speaking  of  Stigand — 
who,  when  the  Norman  Robert  had  been  compelled  to  with- 
draw, entered  the  chair  of  Canterbury — hesitates  not  to  say, 
that  he  made  a  public  traffic  of  bishoprics  and  abbeys  through 
error,  rather  than  any  criminal  intention,  "  as  the  illiterate 
man — and  such,  at  that  time,  were  many  and  almost  all  the 
prelates  of  the  land — saw  no  guilt  in  making  the  most  of  every 
commodity,  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  civil." 

After  the  discomfiture  and  death,  in  this  same  year,  1066, 
of  Harold,  the  son  of  earl  Godwin,  in  whose  veins  was  a 
stream  of  pure  English  blood,  the  Norman  duke,  William, 
to  whom,  from  a  predilection  for  his  race,  Edward,  it  seems, 
had  promised  the  throne  of  England,  was  saluted  king.  The 
Malmesbury  historian  thus  speaks  of  this  event,  and  thus 
describes  the  characters  of  the  two  people.3  "  Fatal  was  that 
day — of  the  battle  of  Hastings — to  Englishmen:  it  marked 
the  fall  of  our  dear  country,  and  subjected  it  to  new  masters." 
He  then  states  what  had  been  the  primitive  habits  of  their 
Saxon  ancestors,  and  what  the  happy  change  in  all  orders  of 
men  after  their  conversion  to  the  Christian  faith.  "  But," 

1  Ingulf.  Hist.  z  De  Gest.  Pont.  Angl.  i.  3  In  Wil.  I.  iii. 


166    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1000 

he  continues,  "  in  process  of  time,  and  before  this  Norman 
invasion,  the  pursuits  of  letters,  and  the  practices  of  piety, 
had  long  been  relinquished.  Satisfied  with  the  slightest  ac- 
quirements, churchmen  could  barely  mutter  the  words  of  the 
service,  whilst  he  who  knew  anything  of  grammar  was  con- 
sidered as  a  prodigy.  Clothed  elegantly,  and  observing  no 
distinction  of  meats,  the  monks  ridiculed  the  rules  of  their 
institutes.  The  nobility,  addicted  to  every  species  of  luxury, 
frequented  not  the  church,  as  became  Christians,  but,  at 
home,  and  in  the  indecencies  of  their  bed-chambers,  barely 
listened  to  the  service,  as  it  was  rapidly  repeated.  The  lower 
orders  were  a  prey  to  the  exactions  of  their  masters;  and 
the  weaker  sex  experienced  the  most  opprobrious  usage. 
Drinking  was  the  delight  of  all;  nor  for  this  did  the  day 
suffice.  But  though  the  waste  of  money  was  great,  their 
houses  were  low  and  contemptible;  in  this  widely  differing 
from  the  Franks  and  Normans,  who  lived  sparingly,  in  edifices 
of  a  spacious  and  grand  construction.  The  vices  attendant 
on  ebriety  enervated  the  mind,  whence,  in  the  fatal  conflict 
of  Hastings,  without  any  military  skill,  with  a  rash  and 
precipitate  fury,  they  engaged  the  enemy,  and  became  an 
easy  conquest,  surrendering  themselves  and  country  to  slaA'ery. 
The  Normans — for  of  them  I  must  speak — were  and  con- 
tinue to  be  most  elegantly  dressed;  and,  without  any  excess, 
they  affect  a  peculiar  delicacy  in  their  food.  Habituated  to 
the  use  of  arms,  and  hardly  knowing  how  to  live  out  of  war, 
they  fight  with  ardour;  but  failing  of  success,  they  have  re- 
course to  stratagem,  and  understand  well  the  efiicacy  of  gold. 
Their  edifices  and  mode  of  living  have  been  mentioned. 
They  are  jealous  of  their  equals;  and  strive  to  surpass  their 
superiors;  they  are  faithful  to  their  masters,  but  desert 
them  on  the  slightest  offence.  They  weigh  the  chances  of 
treachery,  and  sell  their  opinions  to  the  highest  bidder.  Yet 
they  are  the  most  kind-hearted  of  men;  treat  strangers  with 
the  same  respect  as  their  fellow-citizens,  and  do  not  decline 
marriage  with  their  inferiors.  Their  arrival  in  this  country 
gave  a  new  life  to  religion,  which  was  nearly  extinct.  In  all 
parts  of  the  country,  in  towns,  villages,  hamlets,  churches 
and  monasteries,  in  a  new  style  of  building,  were  seen  to 
rise:  the  kingdom,  as  if  regenerated,  began  to  flourish,  while 
every  man  of  wealth  seemed  to  think  the  day  lost  that  some 
•work  of  munificence  did  not  illustrate." 


TO  1200.]          THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST.  167 

Conformably  with  this  representation,  the  liberal  historian 
of  our  poetry  observes:1  "  Such  great  institutions  of  persons 
dedicated  to  religious  and  literary  leisure,  while  they  diffused 
an  air  of  civility,  and  softened  the  manners  of  the  people  in 
their  respective  circles,  must  have  afforded  powerful  invita- 
tions to  studious  pursuits,  and  have,  consequently,  added  no 
small  degree  of  stability  to  the  interests  of  learning." 

The  above  picture  is  strongly  marked  both  in  the  light  of 
praise  and  the  shade  of  reproof.  But  it  may  be  deemed  just. 
The  author  lived  very  near  to  the  times;  and  as,  by  his  own 
declaration,  he  was  related  to  both  people,  his  statement 
cannot  well  be  called  in  question.  Was  the  Norman  con- 
quest then  a  fortunate  event?  If  we  believe  the  historian,  it 
wa>:  not  that  it  was  followed  by  any  improvement  in  happiness, 
in  morals,  or  in  learning,  during  the  life  of  the  conqueror;  for 
he  himself  dwells  on  the  acts  of  stern  oppression  which  the 
English  were  made  to  feel.  He  plainly  says:  "if  you 
except  the  first  days  of  his  reign,  he  did  little  deserving  of 
praise;"  but  the  conquest  was  fortunate  by  introducing  a 
race  of  men — superior,  at  the  time,  to  the  native  inhabitants 
and  the  Danish  settlers — whose  arts  and  whose  manners  could 
not  fail  to  induce  a  gradual  improvement;  and  whose  consti- 
tutional character,  more  animated  and  energetic,  was  well 
adapted,  as  the  event  proved,  to  propagate  a  spirit  of  more 
active  exertion. 

Impelled  by  the  natural  severity  of  his  temper,  and  pro- 
voked by  the  attempts  which  were  made  to  shake  off  his 
galling  yoke,  William  exhibited  the  ferocity  of  a  tyrant;  and 
men  of  all  ranks  experienced  his  resentment.  As  the  rapacity 
of  his  followers  was  in  unison  with  the  merciless  severity  of 
Us  character,  every  Englishman  was  soon  deprived  of  his 
honours  and  estates;  and  it  became  a  fixed  maxim,  from 
which  there  were  few  deviations,  that  Normans  alone  should 
li<;  trusted  with  power,  ecclesiastical,  civil,  and  military.  It 
seemed  his  wish,  when  the  best  blood  of  the  realm  was  re- 
duced to  distress  and  penury,  that  the  English  name  should 
become  a  term  of  reproach.  He  directed,  says  the  abbot  of 
Croyland,-  that  the  elements  of  grammar  should  be  taught  in 
the  French  tongue;  and  that  the  English  manner  of  writing 
should  be  suppressed.  The  pleadings  of  the  courts  of  judi- 

1  Dissert,  ii.  "-  lugulf.  Hist 


168         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       |~A.D.   1000 

cature  were  in  French:  the  deeds  were  often  drawn  in  the 
same  language:  the  laws  were  composed  in  that  idiom:  no 
other  tongue  was  used  at  court:  it  became  the  language  of 
all  fashionable  company;  and  the  English  themselves,  it  is 
said,  ashamed  of  their  own  country,  affected  to  excel  in  that 
foreign  dialect. 

The  event  showed  the  impotency  of  all  attempts  to  exter- 
minate a  language,  once  radically  fixed,  while  the  mass  of  the 
people  who  speak  it  are  permitted  to  live.  The  Saxons  gave 
currency  to  their  tongue;  but  it  was  by  the  extinction  or 
extermination  of  the  British  natives.  When  we  look  to  the 
various  hordes  of  the  Gothic  invaders,  we  may  recollect, 
that  they  adopted  the  speech  of  the  conquered  countries,  or 
insensibly  permitted  their  own  to  be  merged  in  their  idiom. 
Even  the  ancestors  of  these  Normans,  in  the  more  refined 
tones  of  Neustria,  lost  the  rough  and  guttural  accents  of 
their  northern  descent.  The  difference  then  of  circumstances 
is  palpable.  An  ignorant  and  savage  nation,  intent  alone  on 
military  glory  or  on  pillage,  pays  no  attention  to  language, 
arts,  or  manners;  while  the  same  nation,  as  was  verified  in 
the  Normans,  in  process  of  time  becoming  possessed  of 
higher  acquirements,  is  not  satisfied,  unless  with  a  change  of 
language  it  can  force  all  its  habits  on  the  acceptance  of  a 
prostrate  people.  The  conduct  of  the  Romans  bore  a  resem- 
blance to  this  ;  but  they  were  actuated  by  more  enlarged 
views;  and  the  means  which  they  used  were  more  generous 
and  politic. 

The  contumelious  wrongs  and  unrelenting  oppression 
which  I  have  described,  must  necessarily  have  deadened  the 
exertions  of  a  people,  who,  though  as  often  conquered  as 
invaded,  had  not  lost  all  sense  of  national  dignity — and  have 
rendered  them  little  solicitous  to  acquire  fame,  much  less  to 
emulate  the  pursuits  of  their  oppressors.  Four  years  had 
hardly  elapsed,  when,  among  the  able  men  whom  the  con- 
queror introduced,1  Lanfranc  was  called  to  the  see  of  Can- 
terbury. Our  historians  repeat  his  praises  ;  and  no  one, 
surely,  at  that  time,  was  more  worthy  of  the  primacy.  He 
declined  it,  however,  seriously  observing,  that  he  was  a 

1  See  Warton,  Dissert,  ii.  "  Many  of  the  Norman  prelates,"  says  he, 
"  preferred  by  the  conqueror,  were  polite  scholars."  He  afterwards  men- 
tions the  names  of  some  poets,  of  whose  compositions,  in  imitation  of 
Leland,  he  is  disposed  to  think  favourably. 


TO  1200.]  LANFRANC.  169 

stranger  to  the  language  of  the  country,  and  that  its  manners 
were  barbarous.  These  manners  he  might  hope  to  civilize; 
but  his  objection,  founded  on  his  ignorance  of  the  vernacular 
idiom  of  the  people,  was  strong,  though  it  be  well  known 
how  little  it  was  heeded  in  the  appointment  of  ecclesiastical 
superiors.  Much  is  said  of  the  piety  of  Lanfranc,  of  the  con- 
fidence which  was  reposed  in  him  by  the  king,  and  of  his 
zealous  endeavours  to  reform  the  loose  manners  of  the  monks; 
but  nothing,  I  believe,  is  mentioned  of  any  attempt  to  esta- 
blish schools  or  to  revive  the  love  of  letters.  Yet  the  cele- 
brated master  of  Bea,  who  had  done  so  much  for  Normandy, 
and  whose  literary  fame  was  commensurate  with  Europe — 
could  not  certainly  have  neglected  the  interests  of  England, 
when  so  much  power  and  influence  were  placed  in  his  hands. 
He  was  well  aware  of  the  relation  which  knowledge  bears  to 
virtue,  and  ignorance  to  vice;  and  therefore,  as  we  are  told 
that,  by  incessant  labours,  "  he  roused  the  rude  minds  of 
many  to  good,  rubbed  away  the  rust  of  viciousness,  extirpated 
the  seeds  of  evil,  and  planted  those  of  virtue,"  we  must  con- 
clude that,  among  the  various  means  which  were  thus  applied, 
he  exhibited  no  want  of  attention  to  intellectual  pursuits. 
Speaking  of  the  monks  of  his  own  time,  the  historian  of 
Malmesbury  says:  "Their  minds  are  still  formed  on  the 
model  of  Lanfranc  ;  his  memory  is  dear  to  them  ;  a  warm 
devotion  to  God,  to  strangers  a  pleasing  affability,  still  remain; 
nor  shall  ages  see  extinguished  what  in  him  was  a  bene- 
volence of  heart,  comprising  the  human  race,  and  felt  by  each 
one  that  approached  him.1 

The  primate  survived  his  master  not  quite  a  year,  dying  in 
1088,  after  he  placed  the  crown  on  the  head  of  William 
Rufus,  a  prince  whose  education  he  had  superintended;  and 
on  whom  he  had  conferred  the  honour  of  knighthood  agree- 
ably to  the  manners  of  the  times.2  "  The  province  of  Kent," 
concludes  the  historian,  "  as  long  as  time  shall  last,  will  not 
cease  to  speak  of  the  labours  of  Lanfranc;  nor  the  Latin 
world  to  admire  in  his  disciples  the  extent  of  his  doctrine." 
His  works  are  chiefly  theological. 

One  of  these  admirers  was   his    contemporary  and   his 
friend,  Ingulph,  the  abbot  of  Croyland,  who  has  been  men- 

1  De  Gest.  I'ontif.  i.     De  Gest.  Reg.  iii.     Ingulf.  Hist. 

2  Quern  numeral  et  militem  fecenu :  Will.  Malmesb.  iv. 


170        LITERAKY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

tioned  as  noticed  by  queen  Editha,  and  who  has  left  an  in- 
teresting history  of  that  celebrated  abbey,  interspersed  with 
a  variety  of  general  incidents.  He  was  an  Englishman ;  re- 
ceived his  first  education  at  Westminster,  and  completed  it 
at  Oxford,  in  which  latter  place,  he  says,  he  made  great  pro- 
ficiency in  the  study  of  Aristotle,  "  while  he  clothed  himself 
down  to  the  heel  in  t\\Q  first  and  second  rhetoric  of  Tully." 
He  became  acquainted  with  the  Conqueror  in  a  visit  which 
the  latter  made  to  the  court  of  king  Edward  ;  gained  his 
good  will,  and  returned  with  him  into  Normandy,  where  he 
continued  to  enjoy  his  favour,  and  to  exercise  great  power. 
He  joined  a  band  of  pilgrims,  and  travelled  to  Jerusalem; 
and  he  has  related  the  incidents  of  the  journey.  On  his  return 
he  became  a  monk  in  a  monastery  of  Normandy,  from  which 
he  was  transferred  by  king  William  in  1076  to  the  govern- 
ment of  Croyland. 

His  history  is  written  in  a  very  homely  style;  whence  we 
may  collect  what  had  been  the  character  of  his  Ciceronian 
education;  but  the  attention  of  the  reader  is  interested  by  the 
simple  and  ingenuous  air  of  his  narrative.  It  furnishes  all  the 
information  which  the  most  inquisitive  would  wish  to  possess, 
concerning  Croyland,  its  buildings,  its  various  fortunes,  its 
extensive  possessions  and  immunities,  its  treasures,  its  monks, 
its  occupations,  and  its  statutes.  No  distinct  period  seems  to 
have  been  allotted  to  study;  but  an  account  is,  on  one  occa- 
sion, given  of  a  present  of  forty  large  original  volumes  of 
divers  doctors  to  the  common  library,  and  of  more  than  a 
hundred  smaller  copies  of  books  on  various  subjects.  Some- 
times also  the  names  are  mentioned  of  men,  said  to  have  been 
"  deeply  versed  in  every  branch  of  literature."  The  story  of 
the  abbot  Turketul  is  particularly  interesting.  He  had 
exercised  the  high  office  of  chancellor,  that  is,  of  principal 
minister  of  state,  under  more  than  one  of  our  princes,  when, 
in  the  reign  of  Edred,  about  the  year  948,  he  obtained  per- 
mission to  retire,  and  became  at  once  abbot  of  Croyland. 
Many  distinguished  persons,  who  had  been  long  attached  to 
him,  followed  him  in  his  retreat;  of  whom  some  became  monks, 
and  others,  fearing  the  rigours  of  the  cloister,  but  unwilling 
to  lose  the  society  of  their  friend,  had  his  leave  to  reside 
within  the  precincts  of  the  convent.  They  entered  into  priests 
orders,  or  officiated  in  some  inferior  clerical  function,  wearing 


TO  1200.]  TURKETUL.  171 

an  uniform  dressy  but  "  bound  to  no  duty  of  the  monastic  pro- 
fession,1 saving  that  of  continence  and  obedience." 

Proceeding  with  the  administration  of  Turketul,  we  read 
what  he  did  for  the  security  of  the  possessions  and  privileges 
of  Croyland,  when  he  directed  his  views  to  the  improvement 
of  its  internal  government,  and  enacted  a  new  code  of  statutes. 
These  seem  fraught  with  much  wisdom,  by  which  a  just  sub- 
ordination and  correct  discipline,  in  the  practice  of  affability, 
cheerfulness,  modesty,  gentleness,  and  forbearance,  might  be 
maintained;  every  hour  have  its  allotted  occupation;  and  the 
monks  be  led  on,  from  a  life  of  severe  duties,  to  an  increasing 
repose  from  labour,  as  age  required  repose,  and  merit  claimed 
indulgence.  As  his  convent  was  rich,  we  next  see  him  atten- 
tive that  the  indigent  should  be  relieved,  the  unhappy 
solaced,  and  succour  provided  for  all  in  distress.  In  the 
neighbourhood  such  children  were  educated  as  were  designed 
for  the  monastic  life.  These,  the  abbot  visited  once  every 
day,  watching,  with  parental  solicitude,  their  progress  in  their 
several  tasks;  rewarding  the  diligent  with  such  little  presents 
(which  a  servant  carried  with  him),  as  children  love;  and. 
animating  all  by  exhortation,  or,  when  necessary,  compelling 
them  by  chastisement,  to  the  discharge  of  their  duties.  In 
these,  and  various  other  occupations,  particularly  in  attending 
to  the  calls  of  five  venerable  sages,  who  had  witnessed  the 
varied  fortunes  of  Croyland,  passed  the  last  days  of  Turketul. 

"  Oh!  tu  seven  religio  loci, 
Quocunque  gaudes  nomine,  non  leve 
Nativa  nam  certe  fluenta 
Numen  habet,  veteresque  sylvas ; 

PraRsentiorem  et  conspicimus  Deum 
Per  inrias  rupes,  fera  per  juga, 

Clivosque  prseruptos,  sonantes 

Inter  aquas,  nemorumque  noctem  ; 
Quam  si,  etc."2 


1  Preeter  continentiam  et  ohedientiam  nibil  aliud  reliyionis  noverant. 
Ignorant,  I  presume,  of  the  accepted  meaning  of  the  word  n-liyio  (the  mo- 
niistie  profession.)  Mr.  Hume  tlins  disingenuously  translates  the  passages: 
"  Those  very  monks,  we  are  told  by  Ingiilph,  (they  were  not  monks,  says 
Ingnlph,)  had  no  ideu  of  any  moral  <»•  n-Hi/i'His  >it<-rit,  except  chastity  and 
obedience." — Hist,  of  Kng.  in  Kdgar. 

'-'  Thou  genius  of  this  awful  place, 
— Whate'er,  unknown  to  me,  thy  name — 


172    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1000 

They  are  the  well-known  lines  written  by  a  feeling  poet, 
when  visiting  the  awful  mansions  of  the  Grande  Chartreuse, 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Grenoble.  And,  I  own,  my  mind 
could  sympathize  with  his,  as  I  viewed  in  thought  the  retire- 
ment of  Croyland,  and  in  thought  conversed  with  its  inhabit- 
ants; whilst  a  sigh  was  breathed  from  my  bosom,  that  such 
asylums — to  which  the  sinner,  the  man  of  contemplation,  or, 
like  Turketul,  the  statesman,  tired  in  the  ways  of  ambition, 
might  retire — were  now  no  more. 

The  fields,  which  then  smiled  with  luxuriant  crops,  had,  to 
a  certain  extent,  been  reclaimed  from  stagnant  and  noisome 
waters,  and  its  walls  were  raised  on  a  treacherous  foundation, 
but  within  dwelt  content,  and  the  virtues  which  are  associated 
with  an  innocent  and  active  life ;  a  love  of  such  studies  as  the 
rudeness  of  the  times  prescribed;  and  an  hospitable  board  ever 
spread  before  the  traveller  and  the  stranger.  The  neighbour- 
ing parishes — as  in  these  days  of  vaunted  opulence — felt  not 
the  pressure  of  the  idly  indigent,  insolently  claiming  relief, 
and  obtaining  it;  for,  at  the  doors  of  Croyland,  thus  giving 
back  what  the  pious  and  the  charitable  had  bestowed,  the 
hungry  were  fed;  drink  was  given  to  the  thirsty;  the  house- 
less were  sheltered;  and  the  naked  were  clothed. 

Another  Italian,  to  whom  we,  and  France,  and  the  western 
•church  were  indebted,  was  Anselm,  educated  also  at  Bea,  for 
some  years  under  Lanfranc,  and  afterwards  promoted  to  the 
place  of  abbot.  It  is  related,  that  he  imbibed  the  whole  spirit 
of  his  master;  assisted  him  in  his  lectures;  and,  after  his  de- 
parture to  Caen,  took  upon  himself  the  important  charge  of 
instruction,  by  which  means  the  various  elements  of  science, 
and  the  fame  of  the  Norman  school,  were  more  widely  diffused.1 
Besides  possessing  a  more  comprehensive  stock  of  general 
knowledge,  as  it  was  then  taught,  and  refined  by  a  taste  which 
had  not,  in  those  ages,  fallen  to  the  lot  of  any,  the  mind  of 

Thee  'mid  tby  native  streams  I  trace, 
Thee  do  these  ancient  woods  proclaim ! 

Ah  !  more  I  feel  thy  influence  round, 
'Mid  pathless  rocks,  and  mountains  rude, 
And  all  yon  deep  opaque  of  wood, 
And  falling  waters'  solemn  sound, 

Than  if  enshrin'd  aloft  I  saw  thee  stand,  &c. 
1  Eadmer,  in  vita  Anselm. 


TO  1200.]  ST.  ANSELM.  173 

Anselm  was  gifted  with  a  keenness  and  depth  of  penetration, 
which  led  him  triumphantly  through  the  labyrinths  of  meta- 
physical research.  While  teaching  at  Bea,  and  while  prior 
of  the  monastery,  he  wrote  six  treatises,  most  of  which  are 
on  dogmatical  subjects.  In  these,  he  reasons  on  the  existence 
of  the  Supreme  Being  and  his  attributes,  endeavouring  to 
show,  that  the  light  of  intellect  alone  can  lead  man  to  the 
knowledge  of  those  sublime  truths.  The  natural  powers  of 
his  mind  were  thus  at  once  developed — acute,  penetrating, 
subtle;  and,  by  constancy  of  exercise,  they  afterwards  ac- 
quired additional  strength,  and  an  expert  versatility  in  con- 
troversial hostilities.  But  it  has  been  lamented,  that  this 
mode  of  philosophising  on  the  great  points  of  religious  belief, 
which  was  repressed  by  an  humble  diffidence  in  the  mind  of 
Anselm,  took  a  bolder  range  in  others;  generated  endless 
strifes;  and  led  directly  to  that  scholasticism  which  soon 
took  possession  of  the  schools.  Anselm  wrote  on  the  Fall  of 
Satan,  on  Truth,  on  Original  Sin,  on  the  Reason  why  God 
created  Man,  on  the  Liberty  of  the  Will,  and  the  Consistency 
of  Freedom  with  the  Divine  Prescience.  All  these  subjects 
evince  the  particular  speculations  to  which  the  public  atten- 
tion began  to  be  turned,  and  excite  a  hope,  that  when  a  relish 
for  what  is  abstruse  shall  have  seized  the  minds  of  many,  a 
higher  and  more  generally  useful  species  of  intellectual  exer- 
tion will  prevail. 

The  writers  of  the  Literary  History  of  France,  a  work  of 
which  I  am  not  possessed,  thus  speak  of  the  change  which 
was  introduced  into  the  philosophy  of  the  age  by  the  labours 
of  Lanfranc  and  Anselm.  Logic,  say  they,  agreeably  to  its 
primitive  acceptation,  was  the  art  of  just  and  solid  reasoning, 
by  which  truth  might  be  most  readily  discovered  :  but  for 
this,  certain  ideas,  arising  from  the  knowledge  of  things,  were 
previously  necessary  ;  and  the  men  of  this  age  were  little 
solicitous  for  their  acquirement.  Their  dialectic  was  made 
up  of  words  and  rules,  the  application  of  which  was  not  un- 
derstood. To  remedy  this  evil  St.  Anselm  composed  his 
treatise,  entitled  the  Grammarian,  which  is  in  truth  a  treatise 
on  the  art  of  reasoning.  In  this  performance  he  undertakes 
to  point  out  the  two  general  objects  of  all  our  ideas,  namely, 
substance  and  quality.  The  definition  helped  to  simplify 
future  researches;  and  to  this  the  lectures  of  Lanfranc  had 
led  the  way. 


174         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

But  they  add,  that  more  was  done  in  the  line  of  meta- 
physics. When  Anselm  began  to  lecture,  the  name  was 
hardly  known  :  but  he  developed  its  principles  with  so  much 
felicity,  and  himself  made  such  proficiency  in  the  study,  that 
he  acquired  the  fame  of  being  the  first  metaphysician  since 
the  days  of  St.  Austin.  His  works,  entitled  Monologion  and 
Prosologion,  from  which  even  modern  philosophers  have  derived 
no  small  portion  of  light,  form  an  excellent  Treatise  of  Na- 
tural Theology  on  the  Divine  Being  and  the  Trinity  of  Per- 
sons. From  him  the  inquirers  after  truth  learned  to  exalt 
their  minds  above  the  barbarous  sophisms  of  the  schools;  to 
make  use  of  the  natural  light  that  Avas  within  them ;  and  to 
contemplate  the  eternal  essence  in  itself. 

Before  these  two  great  men,  as  they  elsewhere  observe, 
opened  their  schools,  the  Latin,  spoken  in  France,  was  rude 
and  barbarous;  their  philosophy  was  not  worthy  of  the  name; 
and  their  theology  was  lifeless  and  void  of  precision.  When 
they  began  to  speak  and  write,  a  wonderful  change  ensued; 
and  later  ages  have  not  disdained  to  make  them  their  models. 
Lanfranc  taught  the  use  of  those  arms,  in  the  defence  of 
Christian  belief,  which  theology  supplies:  his  pupil,  Anselm, 
undertook  the  solution  of  questions  which,  before  his  time, 
were  involved  in  darkness;  and  showing  the  conformity  of 
his  decisions  with  the  authority  of  the  scriptures,  he  taught 
his  disciples,  by  a  new  method  of  argumentation,  to  reconcile 
reason  with  faith;  while  he  directed  philosophy  to  pursue  the 
path  which  has  been  described.1 

From  these  studies — which  had  a  tendency  to  produce  a 
distaste  for  the  common  business  of  life,  and  to  absorb  the 
mind  in  reveries — Anselm,  about  the  year  1078,  was  called 
to  the  government  of  the  abbey.  His  reluctance  to  accept 
the  place  of  honour  was,  we  may  believe,  sincere;  and,  after 
the  lapse  of  fifteen  years,  he  still  more  reluctantly  consented 
to  accept  the  primacy  of  England.  Pie  knew  the  rapacious 
and  untractable  character  of  the  young  king,  William;  saw 
the  manifold  abuses  which  he  practised  and  encouraged;  and 
was  not  unconscious  of  the  severe  zeal  for  the  well-being  of 
the  church  with  which  his  own  bosom  glowed.  It  belongs 
not  to  me  to  trace  the  series  of  misunderstandings  which 
ensued  between  him  and  the  prince,  which  may  be  considered 

1  These  passages  are  taken  from  Tiraboschi,  Storia  della  Lit.  Ital.  iii.  iv. 


TO   1200.]  ST.  ANSELM.  175 

as  the  cause  which  principally  averted  his  attention  from  the 
literary  concerns  of  England,  and  which — joined  to  the  opinion 
that  all  those  of  the  Norman  school  entertained  of  the  prero- 
gative of  Rome — drew  him  from  his  see  to  consult  the  occu- 
pant of  the  papal  chair.  It  was  during  this  visit,  in  an  interval 
which  he  was  permitted  to  pass  in  the  beloved  retirement  of 
a  convent,  that  he  returned  to  his  former  speculations,  and 
completed  a  work,  which  he  had  before  begun,  on  the  abstruse 
question,  Wliy  God  was  made  man  ?  It  was  also  during  the 
same  visit  that  he  assisted  at  the  council  of  Bari,  in  1098; 
where  he  was  publicly  desired  by  the  pontiff  Urban  to  deliver 
his  opinion,  which  he  did  in  a  manner  so  full  and  satisfactory 
— in  reply  to  the  Greek  delegates,  on  the  point  of  the  proces- 
sion of  the  Holy  Ghost — that  a  final  decision  was  instantly 
pronounced.1  The  Greeks  had  in  no  previous  controversy 
encountered  a  champion  who  was  more  competent  to  follow 
them  through  the  mazes  of  metaphysical  research,  and  to 
defeat  them  with  their  own  weapons. 

The  primate  returned  after  the  death  of  William,  and  the 
accession  of  Henry  to  the  throne;  but  new  contests  arose  on 
other  points  of  ecclesiastical  privilege;  and  in  these  the  re- 
maining years  of  the  life  of  Anselm  were  consumed.  At  no 
time,  however,  had  he  desisted  from  his  usual  employments 
of  study  and  writing;  and  when  he  died,  his  works  amounted 
to  many  volumes,  on  dogmatical,  ascetic,  and  other  subjects.2 

Eadmer,  a  monk,  his  pupil,  his  friend,  and  the  companion 
of  his  journeys,  has  left  us,  in  two  distinct  works,3  the  history 
of  his  master's  life;  of  his  contests  with  the  English  kings; 
and  of  the  persecutions  which  he  endured  according  to  the 
prevailing  maxims  of  the  times  in  the  cause  of  justice.  Some 
critics  have  spoken  highly  of  the  last  of  these  works.  They 
say  that  it  may  vie  in  elegance  with  the  best  of  our  old  writers: 
its  style  is  equable,  and  not  deficient  in  dignity.  If  we  look 
to  his  contemporaries,  to  those  who  went  before  him,  or  even 
to  thus.-  who  came  after  him,  we  are  disgusted  with  their 
irro>.s  and  squalid  compilations.  Eadmer  is  not  beneath  the 
monk  of  Malmesbury  in  manner,  and  in  other  respects  he  is 
far  his  superior.4 

I  am  not  disposed  to  controvert  this  favourable  judgment; 

i   I'.iulm.  Hist.  Nov.  ii.  et  in  vita  Ansel. 

-'  Unpin,  viii.  *  De  vita  St.  Anselm,  Historic  Novorum. 

1  Selden,  1'raf.  in  J-'.adiu. 


176         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

for  when  a  writer  of  history  narrates  facts  in  a  luminous  and 
well  digested  series,  with  a  due  attention  to  chronological  ac- 
curacy, we  are  in  possession  of  all  that  is  most  valuable,  and 
may  be  contented  to  overlook  the  absence  of  harmonious 
periods  or  the  ornaments  of  polished  diction.  But  what  ex- 
cites disgust  in  Eadmer  and  in  others,  is  the  puerile  credulity 
which  they  manifest  in  every  page.  But  still,  as  this  was 
their  temper  and  the  temper  of  the  times,  the  loss  of  such 
writers  would  have  been  the  loss  of  some  important  links  in 
the  history  of  man,  or  a  spacious  blank  in  the  descriptive  pic- 
ture of  his  errors.  Here  we  are  led  to  ask — Had  the  learned 
lectures  of  Lanfranc  and  of  Anselm  in  no  degree  diminished 
the  gross  darkness  of  the  times?  Or,  what  is  more,  had  their 
own  minds — which  could  penetrate  the  secret  recesses  of  mys- 
tery in  points  of  the  most  intricate  subtlety — acquired  no 
knowledge,  of  the  laws  of  nature,  or  of  the  ordinary  dispen- 
sations of  Providence,  in  the  government  of  the  world  ?  So 
it  seems:  for  had  Anselm  thought  more  justly  than  his  pupil, 
the  latter,  in  recording  the  events  of  his  life,  to  many  of  which 
he  was  an  eye-witness,  could  not  have  seen  prodigies  in  the 
most  ordinary  occurrences,  and  have  emblazoned  every  act  of 
virtue  as  an  effort  of  miraculous  power.  He  would  have 
learned  to  correct  this  extravagance,  and  to  repress  his  pru- 
rient propensity  to  the  marvellous.  On  one  occasion,  when 
the  primate  was  on  a  journey,  a  hare,  pursued  by  dogs,  took 
refuge  between  his  horse's  legs.  The  dogs  stopt.  "  Go  thy 
way,"  said  he  to  the  timid  sufferer,  moved  by  pity:  "  the  hare 
went  off;  but  the  dogs  were  withheld  from  the  chace  by  the 
potency  of  his  words."  On  another  occasion,  he  saw  a  boy 
holding  a  bird  by  a  string,  which  he  let  loose,  or  drew  back, 
as  his  wanton  fancy  directed.  "  I  wish  thou  wert  at  liberty," 
said  Anselm.  "Instantly  his  wish  was  accomplished;  and 
the  boy,  on  seeing  the  bird  escape,  burst  into  tears."  The 
luxuriant  credulity  of  Eadmer  had  not  been  corrected  by  his 
master.  Where  virtue  was,  there  must  have  been  in  his 
mind  an  accompaniment  of  prodigies.  No  effort  of  virtue  was 
too  trifling  for  the  display  of  miracles,  or,  in  other  words,  for 
the  suspension  of  nature's  laws. 

Had  the  credulity  of  the  age,  which  is  synonymous  with 
ignorance,  rested  here,  it  might  have  been  thought,  at  least, 
innocent;  but  it  led  to  pernicious  and  often  fatal  excesses. 
Such  were  the  proofs  or  trials  by  ordeal,  in  which,  when  suf- 


TO  1200.]  THE  CRUSADES.  177 

ficient  evidence  of  innocence  or  of  guilt  did  not  appear,  re- 
course was  had  to  what  they  called  the  judgment  of  God. 
These  trials  were  various,  chiefly  by  fire  or  water;  and  the 
histories  of  the  times  abound  with  the  most  extraordinary  in- 
cidents. Religion  was  employed  to  consecrate  the  attendant 
ceremonies,  and  men  of  real  piety  refused  not  to  be  present 
at  the  humiliating  scene.  It  is  related,  that  at  Florence 
during  this  century,  a  monk,  named  Peter,  in  order  to  prove 
that  the  bishop  of  the  city  had  been  guilty  of  simony,  passed 
barefooted  and  unhurt  over  a  path  of  ten  feet,  strewed  with 
burning  coals,  and  between  two  flaming  piles.  The  bishop, 
who  was  thus  convicted,  was  deposed  by  the  Roman  pontiff, 
and  Peter  was  afterwards  promoted  to  the  see  of  Albano. 
Not  many  years  after  this,  when  Antioch  was  taken  by  the 
Christians,  and  the  identity  of  the  lance  was  disputed  which 
had  pierced  the  side  of  our  Saviour,  the  monk  who  had 
recently  made  the  discovery  by  the  suggestion  of  a  vision, 
offered  to  undergo  the  ordeal  of  fire  to  establish  the  truth  of 
what  he  said.  His  offer  was  accepted,  and  he  passed  through 
the  terrible  proof.  He  died,  however,  within  a  few  days, 
and  the  fact  of  the  supposed  discovery  became  problematical. 

It  is  sometimes  said,  that  there  was  more  sincerity  and 
truth  in  the  intercourse  of  life  amongst  a  people  thus  rude 
and  illiterate.  I  suspect  it  to  be  otherwise.  That  virtue 
which  is  of  the  most  genuine  sort,  will,  I  believe,  be  found 
where  the  mind  is  most  enlarged,  and  reason  most  cultivated. 

We  may  feel  some  surprise,  that  such  ecclesiastics  as  those 
whom  we  have  lately  contemplated,  and  who,  with  their 
brethren,  uniformly  opposed  the  trials  by  battle,  did  not  dis- 
cover the  insufficiency,  not  to  say  the  folly,  even  the  wicked- 
ness, of  the  ordeal  proofs.  But  can  inconsistency  cause  sur- 
prise ?  And  what  judgment  shall  we  form  of  the  crusades, 
which  were  more  extravagant  in  their  origin,  more  contagious 
in  their  progress,  more  destructive  in  their  consequences,  than 
all  the  follies  which  had  hitherto  infuriated  or  depressed  the 
human  race,  and  which,  towards  the  close  of  this  century,  took 
forcible  possession  of  the  minds  of  the  western  world.  As 
elsewhere1  I  shall  mention  as  much  of  this  subject  as  may  be 
deemed  connected  with  the  cause  of  letters,  I  shall  here  only 
observe,  as  another  instance  of  human  weakness,  that  the 

1  See  App.  1. 


178          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

scheme  originated  in  the  cultivated  mind  of  Gerbert,  in  the 
first  year  of  his  pontificate;  was  nourished  by  Hildebrand, 
and  carried  into  execution  by  the  activity  of  Urban  II.,  and 
the  eloquence  of  Peter  the  Hermit.  Without  attending  to 
the  express  declarations  of  the  instigator  of  this  holy  warfare, 
writers  on  this  subject  have  amused  their  sagacity  in  the 
supposed  discovery  of  various  and  discordant  motives,  Ger- 
beit  writes  an  epistle1  in  the  name  of  the  church  of  Jerusalem, 
to  the  church  universal  throughout  the  world,  in  which — after 
describing  her  present  dejection,  and  her  former  glory,  when 
Christ  chose  her  land  for  the  place  of  his  habitation,  of  his 
death,  and  of  his  burial — she  exhorts  the  Christian  soldier  to 
come  to  her  relief,  if  not  in  arms,  at  least  by  the  subsidiary 
aid  of  advice  and  of  treasure.  As  the  enemy  had  advanced, 
Gregory  formed  the  bolder  design  of  carrying  war  into  the 
heart  of  his  dominions,  and  endeavoured  to  rouse  the  western 
princes  by  arguments  of  self-interest,  of  religion,  and  the 
sacred  thirst  of  Christian  glory,  to  co-operate  with  him. 
Such  reasonings  were  congenial  with  the  feelings  of  the  man: 
he  even  offered  to  march  with  them;  "  but  a  design  of  this 
magnitude,"  as  he  prudently  observed,  "  demands  wise  advice 
and  powerful  succour."2  Urban  resumed  the  scheme,  and  in 
the  council  of  Clermont,  by  all  the  arguments  before  sug- 
gested, which  were  powerfully  addressed  to  the  passions, 
easily  accomplished  what  his  predecessors  had  begun  and  the 
Hermit  had  impressed  on  every  mind.  The  first  army 
marched  in  1096,  and  in  1099  Jerusalem  was  taken. 

I  believe  that  the  views  of  Gregory  were  politically  just; 
and  had  the  strong  impulse  of  enthusiastic  devotion  not  been 
introduced,  without  which,  however,  nothing  could  have  been 
done — and  a  regular  army,  with  which  the  throne  of  Byzan- 
tium might  have  safely  co-operated,  been  conducted  by  expert 
generals  into  the  East,  it  is  probable  that  the  Saracenic  power 
would  have  experienced  an  effectual  check,  and  the  fall  of 
many  kingdoms  been  averted.  But  the  excitement  of  enthu- 
siasm was  necessary  to  the  effect  which  was  to  be  produced; 
for  without  it,  what  man,  after  cool  deliberation,  would  have 
devoted  his  person  and  his  property  to  so  remote  and  hazardous 
an  enterprise  ?  And  when  the  mental  fever  was  kindled,  a 
train  of  consequences,  similar  to  what  were  experienced, 

1  Bib.  P.  65.  x.  ep.  xxviii.  2  L.  1.  Epp.  ep.  xviii.  ii.  ep.  xxxi. 


TO  1200.]  EFFECTS  OF  THE  CRUSADES.  179 

would  necessarily  ensue,  and  which  Europe  had  long  reason 
to  deplore. 

But  was  the  state  of  letters  at  all  affected  by  the  first,  or  by 
the  ensuing  crusades  ?  I  think  that  it  was  affected,  but  to  its 
detriment.  That  it  suffered  at  home  will  hardly  be  contro- 
verted, when  we  consider  the  dissipation  which  it  occasioned 
in  the  minds  of  all  men,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  and  the  new 
temper  that  was  generated,  by  which  all  sedentary  occupa- 
tions were  suspended,  and  a  mark  of  reproach  fixed  upon 
every  undertaking  which  did  not  tend  to,  or  was  not  con- 
nected with  the  peculiar  military  mania  of  the  times.  Schools 
and  convents  felt  the  general  contagion;  if  a  few  employed 
the  sober  remonstrances  of  wisdom,  they  were  unheeded  or 
despised.  At  the  call  of  their  prince,  duke  Robert,  the  pupils 
of  Bea  deserted  their  masters;  and  no  eloquence  gained 
hearers  but  that  of  the  Hermit,  or  of  popular  declaimers  on 
the  same  topic.  That  this  was  the  case  is  sufficiently  attested 
by  the  histories  of  the  times. 

As  to  external  benefits,  I  believe  there  were  none;  or  if 
any,  did  they  compensate  for  the  depopulation  of  countries, 
the  waste  of  treasure,  the  obscuration  of  the  moral  principle 
with  respect  to  correct  views  of  right  and  wrong,  and  the  in- 
troduction of  many  foreign  vices  ?  It  is  true  that  among  the 
Greeks  there  was  much  to  learn,  and  much  might  have  been 
derived  from  the  Saracens  themselves.  But  in  our  sottish 
vanity  we  affected  to  despise  the  former,  because  their  bodily 
strength  was  inferior  to  our  own,  and  they  knew  less  of  the 
art  of  war;  and  to  have  sought  instruction  from  a  Saracen, 
or  to  have  taken  it  when  offered,  might  fairly  have  been 
deemed  an  humiliating  concession  to  the  enemy,  if  not  a  base 
dereliction  of  the  Christian  faith.  Our  ignorance,  besides,  of 
the  languages  of  the  countries  through  which  we  passed,  was 
an  insurmountable  obstacle  to  every  acquirement,  unless 
Avhore  the  observation  of  the  eye  may  be  supposed  to  have 
sufficed.  Hence  it  has  been  remarked,  that  a  higher  degree 
of  splendour  and  parade,  which  was  borrowed  from  the  riches 
and  ntagmflcence  of  the  eastern  cities,  was  introduced  into 
the  courts  and  ceremonies  of  the  European  princes. 

li'it  be  still  insisted  that  some  benefits  in  domestic,  civil, 
or  scientific  knowledge,  were  necessarily  communicated  to 
Europe,  either  by  the  expeditions  themselves,  or  at  least 
owing  to  our  long  abode  in  the  East,  I  ask  what  those  benefits 

N2 


180        LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

were  ?  or  how  it  happened,  that  the  literary  and  intellectual 
aspect  of  Europe  exhibited  no  striking  change  till  other  causes, 
wholly  unconnected  with  the  crusades,  were  brought  into 
action  ?  I  believe,  then,  that  these  expeditions  were  utterly 
sterile  with  respect  to  the  arts,  to  learning,  and  to  every  moral 
advantage,  and  that  they  neither  retarded  the  progress  of  the 
invading  enemy,  nor,  for  a  single  day,  the  fate  of  the  eastern 
empire. 

Yet  we  have  seen  that,  by  the  agency  of  schools,  and  the 
celebrity  of  particular  individuals,  some  impulse  had  been 
given  to  the  human  faculties;  and  when  this  has  taken  place 
the  effect  will  not  at  once  cease.  Nor  will  I  deny,  that  when 
the  mental  energies  had  been  brought  into  action  by  the 
crusades,  even  literary  pursuits,  though  wholly  unconnected 
with  them,  might  in  some  few  cases  obtain  a  fairer  chance  of 
engaging  attention,  than  if  the  general  stagnation  of  thought, 
which  we  have  so  long  beheld,  had  continued  to  prevail.  In 
the  twelfth  century,  new  religious  institutes  were  formed, 
schools  were  enlarged  and  established,  and  the  study  of  juris- 
prudence and  of  new  modes  of  philosophising  was  pursued 
with  incredible  avidity.  That  the  cause  of  real  literature 
received  any  direct  benefit  from  these  incidental  occurrences 
I  do  not  pretend  to  assert,  but  their  tendency  was  obviously 
beneficial.  They  kept  the  intellectual  faculties  in  action,  and 
when,  though  the  time  may  be  remote,  some  fortunate  event, 
or  some  combination  of  circumstances  shall  give  birth  to  other 
subjects  of  inquiry,  a  disposition  to  embrace  them,  and  an 
ability  to  pursue  them  will  be  found.  I  am  not  aware  that 
any  men  of  transcendent  talents  will  now  present  themselves 
to  our  consideration;  and  if  such  there  should  be,  I  shall  not 
bring  them  forward,  unless  they  are  in  some  degree  connected 
with  the  general  state  of  letters. 

The  question  of  investitures,  between  the  church  and  the 
state,  continued  to  agitate  both,  and  to  occupy  the  minds  of 
the  different  champions.  The  exercise  of  talents  arose  from 
the  perpetuation  of  controversies.  No  spiritual  jurisdiction 
was  meant  to  be  conveyed  by  the  ceremony  of  investing ;  but 
merely  to  secure,  by  an  act  of  homage  to  the  prince,  the  fealty 
of  the  newly- elected  bishops  and  abbots  before  they  entered 
on  the  possession  of  the  cities,  castles,  or  lands  annexed  to 
their  sees  or  monasteries.  The  claims  of  the  prince  were 
called  regalia.  But  here  lay  the  difficulty.  The  possession 


TO  1200.]  INTERCOURSE  WITH  ROME.  181 

was  granted  by  the  crosier  and  the  ring,  the  obvious  emblems 
of  ecclesiastical  power.  "  And  what  matters  it,"  observes 
Ives,  the  learned  bishop  of  Chartres,  and  a  pupil  of  Lanfranc, 
"  whether  the  concession  be  made  by  the  hand,  by  a  sign  of 
the  head,  by  word*,  or  by  the  crosier  ?  By  these  nothing 
spiritual  is  intended,  but  only  to  consent  to  the  election,  or  to 
grant  to  the  elected  the  possession  of  such  lands  or  external 
effects  which  the  beneficence  of  princes  had  bestowed  on 
churches."1  But  when  the  passions  were  enlisted  on  one  side, 
the  arguments  of  cool  reasoners  were  little  heeded  on  the 
other;  and  the  dispute  lasted  till  a  somewhat  later  period, 
when,  by  the  easy  device  of  substituting  the  sceptre  for  the 
ring  and  the  crosier,  the  mutual  rights  of  the  church,  and 
state  were  deemed  to  be  preserved  inviolate. 

During  this  controversy  our  Anselm,  and  in  other  countries 
other  bishops,  made  journeys  to  Rome,  which,  though  an 
evil — as  far  as  they  helped  to  create  or  to  perpetuate  too  ser- 
vile a  dependence  on  the  Roman  court — were  in  other  points 
of  view  productive  of  much  good.  They  opened  to  the  tra- 
vellers whatever  was  worthy  of  observation  in  the  countries 
through  which  they  passed;  and  as  these  travellers  were 
generally  men  of  some  talents,  they  would  naturally  make 
comparisons  and  derive  materials  for  improvement.  The 
Latin  language,  which  they  all  spoke,  would  admit  them  to  a 
free  intercourse  with  men  of  education  in  the  courts,  the 
cities,  and  the  monasteries  which  lay  in  their  way;  in  the 
last  of  which  the  doors  were  ever  open  to  strangers.  At 
Rome,  I  need  not  remark  how  plentiful  would  be  the  objects 
of  curiosity,  the  means  of  information,  and  the  sources  of  im- 
provement. It  may  therefore,  I  think,  be  presumed,  that 
from  these  journeys  every  traveller  returned  with  some  addi- 
tions to  his  stock  of  knowledge;  though  he  might  at  the  same 
time  imbibe  a  more  partial  attachment  to  the  Roman  prero- 
gative than  he  possessed  when  he  left  home. 

Other  calls,  in  the  present  state  of  ecclesiastical  politics, 
drew  churchmen  to  the  Roman  tribunal,  or  to  the  shrine  of 
Peter;  and  among  these  churchmen  the  most  conspicuous 
were  the  metropolitans.  A  badge  of  honour  called  the 
pallium — anciently  worn  by  the  emperors — had  by  the  con- 
cession of  the  pontiffs  become  a  part  of  the  archiepiscopal 


1  Ivon.  ep.  65,  ap.  Baron,  an.  1099. 


182    LITERARY  HISTORY  OP  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1000 

attire.  At  first  it  denoted  dignity,  and  was  conferred  on 
those  whose  services  seemed  most  to  deserve  the  distinctive 
mark;  but,  in  process  of  time,  it  acquired  a  higher  distinc- 
tion, and  was  thought  to  signify  the  plenitude  or  consumma- 
tion of  the  pontifical  power,  without  which  the  archbishops 
were  not  permitted  to  exercise  the  duties  of  their  station.  As 
it  was  of  consequence  that  an  intercourse  should  be  main- 
tained between  the  head  and  the  principal  members  of  the 
church,  the  metropolitans,  on  their  accession  to  their  sees, 
were  directed  to  make  a  journey  to  Rome,  there  to  petition 
for  the  pallium  ;  to  take  it — when  the  petition  was  granted, 
and  the  stipulated  fees  were  paid — from  the  shrine  of  St. 
Peter,  on  which  it  was  placed:  and  at  the  delivery  to  swear 
obedience  and  fealty  to  the  pontiff.  From  this  journey, 
though  often  laborious  and  expensive,  an  exemption  was  not 
easily  obtained.  This  was,  as  I  recollect,  the  case  with  Lan- 
franc,  who,  having  pleaded  his  remote  situation,  was  an- 
swered by  Hildebrand,  then  archdeacon  of  the  Roman  church, 
that  had  the  favour  been  granted  to  any  prelate  of  his  sta- 
tion, it  should  not  have  been  refused  to  him.  He  then  added 
these  remarkable  words:  "We  think  it  necessary  that  you 
should  come  to  Rome,  that  we  may,  with  more  eifect,  discuss 
various  subjects,  and  take  our  resolutions."1 

Early  in  this  century,  after  the  death  of  Anselm,  the  pri- 
macy was  conferred  on  the  bishop  of  Rochester.  The  age 
and  the  infirmities  of  this  prelate  rendered  him  incapable 
of  performing  the  journey;  a  dispensation  from  personal  at- 
tendance was  accordingly  granted,  but  not  without  great  dif- 
ficulty; and  a  legate,  with  all  the  solemnity  of  office,  was 
deputed  with  the  pallium.  In  the  presence  of  a  vast  multi- 
tude, observes  the  historian,2  who  was  an  eye-witness  of  the 
scene,  the  legate  entered  Canterbury,  having  obtained  the 
king's  permission,  bearing  in  a  silver  box  the  Roman  pallium. 
The  archbishop,  attended  by  his  suffragans,  and  pontifically 
attired,  walked  barefooted  to  meet  him.  The  venerable 
ornament  was  laid  upon  the  altar,  from  which  it  was  taken 
by  the  primate,  "  having  first  made  a  profession  of  fidelity 
and  obedience  to  the  pope."  The  pallium  was  presented  to 
the  kisses  of  the  assembly,  was  then  placed  over  the  shoul- 
ders of  the  primate,  and  he  was  enthroned. 

1  Ap.  Baron,  an.  1070.         .  2  Eadm.  v.  Novor. 


TO   1200.]  INTERCOURSE  WITH  ROME.  183 

This  incident  suggests  another  remark:  that  if  by  these 
journeys  to  Rome  from  the  remotest  quarters,  and  through 
many  intermediate  kingdoms,  an  intercourse  was  maintained 
— without  which  nations  would,  in  a  great  measure,  have 
remained  insulated,  and  unchanged  in  their  habits — the  pro- 
gress of  Roman  legates  through  the  states  of  Christendom, 
their  residence  in  the  various  courts,  and  their  visits  to  the 
churches,  may  be  considered  as  another  source  of  civilization 
and  improvement,  though  sometimes  of  injury  and  oppression. 
The  legates  were  selected  for  their  engaging  manners;  their 
endowments  commanded  respect;  their  attendants  were  nume- 
rous; and  the  splendour  of  ceremonial  which  accompanied  all 
their  movements  displayed  the  polished  taste  and  superior 
refinement  of  the  court  from  which  they  came.  For  the 
maintenance  of  this  station  the  ecclesiastical  order  was  indeed 
often  exposed  to  many  burdens;  but  still  such  legations  were 
not  without  their  use.  They  were  not  without  benefit  to 
literature.  The  legates  themselves,  or  the  confidential  secre- 
taries in  their  train,  were  men  of  learning;  and  the  learning 
of  Rome,  at  all  times  marked  by  a  characteristic  superiority, 
could  not  fail  to  engage  attention,  and  occasionally  to  kindle 
a  laudable  emulation. 

Should  it  l)e  objected  to  me,  that  I  can  discover  advantages 
from  this  intercourse  with  Rome  and  with  Romans,  and  none 
from  the  crusades,  which  promoted  more  travelling  and  a  much 
more  extensive  communication — I  reply,  that  the  spirit,  the 
views,  the  motives,  joined  to  the  characters  of  the  men  en- 
gaged, in  both  cases  were  widely  different;  and  that  there- 
fore the  results  could  not  be  the  same.  On  one  side  we 
behold  persons  of  education,  of  sober  and  regular  conduct 
and  habits,  coolly  contemplating,  as  they  proceeded,  or  as  they 
sojourned,  the  manners,  the  arts,  the  customs  of  nations  :  on 
the  other,  we  gaze  upon  a  promiscuous  multitude,  of  all  ages, 
orders,  and  professions,  rushing  forward  with  the  impetuosity 
of  a  torrent,  and  solely  intent  on  plunder,  sensual  gratification, 
or  providing  the  means  of  subsistence;  or  destroying  the  sup- 
posed enemy,  or,  at  the  best,  on  accomplishing  their  vows. 
Here  the  disparity  is  obvious,  and  it  is  by  no  means  in  favour 
of  the  crusades. 

The  intercourse  with  Rome — though  it  might  produce  the 
salutary  effects  which  have  been  mentioned — prepared  the 
way,  by  facilitating  the  introduction  of  abuses,  to  a  distant, 


184    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1000 

but  fortunate  revolution,  of  which  at  the  time  there  could 
be  no  suspicion,  and  of  which  the  reader  may  not  himself  be 
aware.  The  abuses  to  which  I  allude  were  of  the  most 
diversified  kind,  and  branched  out  into  a  thousand  modes  of 
extortion  and  oppression,  till  they  swelled  into  one  accumu- 
lated stream  of  grievances,  of  which  the  best  men  of  the  age, 
and  the  sincere  friends  of  order  and  of  Rome,  did  not  cease 
to  complain.  Among  these  were  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  and 
our  countryman  John  of  Salisbury.  The  grievances,  how- 
ever, remained:  and  the  wealth  of  Christendom  continued  to 
flow  into  the  Roman  treasury,  or  to  nourish  the  greedy  de- 
pendents on  that  court — under  the  general  admission,  that  its 
prerogative  over  the  persons  and  purses  of  churchmen  was 
without  control — when  a  general  discontent  gave  rise  to  in- 
quiry, inquiry  to  discussion,  discussion  to  discovery.  Men 
went  back  to  the  early  ages;  the  writings  of  those  ages  were 
examined;  a  spirit  of  criticism  aided  the  research,  and  light 
gradually  opened  on  the  mind.  I  am  well  aware  that  it  was 
long  before  this  point  was  reached;  but  the  first  step  was  now 
taken,  though  marked  by  little  more  than  the  feeble  murmur 
of  discontent. 

In  tracing  the  progress  of  the  human  mind  through  dark- 
ness into  light,  no  stage  of  the  way,  however  slight,  should  be 
neglected;  and  therefore  if,  in  the  intercourse  with  Rome,  I 
could  discover  the  germ  of  some  improvement  to  less  polished 
nations,  that  subject  ought  not  to  be  overlooked,  when,  by 
engendering  grievances,  it  generated  complaints,  which 
brought  on  inquiries;  by  which  not  only  certain  spurious 
documents  and  unfounded  claims  were  discovered,  but  which 
terminated  in  the  revival  of  letters. 

Other  effects  of  these  grievances,  and  of  the  relaxed  and 
worldly  manners  of  the  higher  orders  of  churchmen,  were  the 
peculiar  heresies  of  the  age.  Persons  possessed  of  little  know- 
ledge— such  as  the  Catharists  or  Puritans,  the  Petrobrussians, 
the  Henricians,  and  the  Waldenses,  or  poor  men  of  Lyons — 
undertook,  in  the  ardour  of  their  zeal,  to  reform  mankind, 
and  to  restore  Christianity  to  what  they  conceived  to  be  its 
primitive  purity.  They  were  opposed,  as  might  be  expected; 
but  such  opposition,  where  enthusiasm,  not  the  address  of 
able  innovators,  was  to  be  combated,  demanded  not  the  exer- 
cise of  vigorous  talents,  nor  the  display  of  learned  investiga- 
tion. It  only  kept  the  mind  in  action. 


TO   1200.]  NEW  MONASTIC  ORDERS.  185 

Another  incentive  to  this  action  was  the  establishment,  in 
the  present  century,  of  new  monastic  orders.  Hitherto  that 
of  St.  Benedict  had,  I  believe,  exclusively  prevailed;  in  all 
countries  its  houses  were  numerous;  and  schools,  as  has  been 
mentioned,  were  opened  to  them,  which  were  the  resort  of 
able  professors  willing  to  teach,  and  of  scholars  eager  to 
learn.  The  fame  of  sanctity  and  of  learning  to  which  the 
depraved  lives  and  the  gross  ignorance  of  the  secular  clerks 
gave  a  powerful  relief,  attracted  general  regard;  while  the 
pious  and  the  opulent  poured  in  their  treasures,  and  trans- 
formed their  humble  abodes  into  magnificent  edifices  which 
they  surrounded  with  extensive  domains.  That  effect  then 
ensued  which  a  knowledge  of  human  nature  might  readily 
have  anticipated;  the  monks  degenerated  from  their  primitive 
severity  of  conduct  and  simplicity  of  manners,  and  immora- 
lity and  disorder  took  place  of  piety  and  discipline.  This 
was  visibly  the  case  in  the  celebrated  house  of  Clugni  in  Bur- 
gundy, which  had  long  been  distinguished  for  the  exemplary 
virtues  of  its  inhabitants;  and  it  was  the  falling  off  of  this 
and  of  other  houses  gave  rise,  at  this  time,  to  the  order  of 
Citeaux — from  the  place  named  Cistertian — and  to  other  in- 
stitutions. Of  all  these  new  establishments  the  design  was 
to  restore  the  pristine  regularity  of  the  monastic  life.  In  this 
they  were  successful;  and  by  this  means  the  newly-erected 
orders  acquired  the  general  favour,  and  became  the  objects  of 
that  lavish  liberality  which  had  both  enriched  and  corrupted 
the  houses  of  St.  Benedict.1 

The  energy  which  was  imparted  by  these  means  to  the 
minds  of  many,  was  far  from  inconsiderable.  Not  only 
austerity  of  manners,  with  exercises  of  an  exalted  devotion, 
and  a  marked  abstractedness  from  the  world,  were  necessary, 
but,  in  the  state  of  rivalry  in  which  they  stood  with  the 
Benedictine  fraternities,  a  superiority  was  to  be  shown  in 
every  undertaking,  whether  of  religious  duties  or  of  scientific 
pursuits.  The  monks  of  Citeaux,  however,  in  what  was  called 
their  golden  age,  led  an  ascetic  life,  in  silence,  prayer,  and 
manual  labour,  regardless  of  literary  application ;  whilst  those 
of  Premontre,  who  were  nearly  coeval  in  their  foundation, 
combined  with  those  exercises  an  assiduous  attention  to 
literary  cultivation. 

1  See  on  these  subjects  the  writers  of  Ecclesiastical  History. 


186         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

I  must  not  quit  Citeaux  without  some  mention  of  the  cele- 
brated St.  Bernard,  who  was,  without  exception,  the  most 
eminent  character  of  the  age.  The  influence  which  he  pos- 
sessed throughout  Europe  seemed  unbounded;  his  dictates 
were  received  as  a  law;  and  kings  and  princes  listened  with 
respectful  obedience  to  his  admonitions,  as  to  the  voice  of 
heaven.  He  was  born  towards  the  close  of  the  last  century, 
near  Dijon,  and  received  his  education  in  the  neighbouring 
schools.  His  talents,  which  were  great,  were  joined  to  an 
uncommon  fluency  of  natural  elocution.  His  progress  in 
learning  and  the  liberal  arts  exceeded  the  usual  attainments  of 
the  age.  But  his  mind  was  cast  in  a  peculiar  mould.  Seques- 
tered habits,  ascetic  practices,  devotional  ardour,  and  the  con- 
templation of  celestial  objects,  could  alone  occupy  his  thoughts; 
and  he  became  absorbed  in  these,  till  the  world  and  all  its 
concerns  excited  only  his  disgust;  and  he  resolved  entirely  to 
abandon  the  busy  scene  of  existence.  Citeaux  had  been 
recently  founded.  Its  austerities,  its  seclusion,  its  ascetic 
exercises,  its  lowly  condition,  and  even  its  poverty,  had  charms 
for  him;  but  he  would  not  go  alone,  and  it  was  his  wish  that 
others  should  be  partakers  of  the  happiness  which  he  was 
about  to  enjoy.  He  had  six  brothers,  many  relations,  and 
many  friends,  some  of  whom  were  established  in  the  world, 
and  all  of  whom  had  a  fair  prospect  before  them  of  fortune 
and  distinction.  To  draw  such  men  as  these  to  the  cells  of 
Citeaux  would  be  a  noble  triumph.  Bernard  made  the 
attempt,  and  succeeded.  So  much,  indeed,  was  his  persuasive 
energy  an  object^ of  alarm,  that  mothers,  says  the  writer  of 
his  life,  hid  their  children,  wives  their  husbands,  friends  their 
friends,  that  they  might  not  come  within  its  dangerous 
sphere.  In  his  twenty-second  year,  followed  by  five  of  his 
brothers  and  other  companions,  in  number  thirty,  Bernard 
entered  the  humble  retirement  of  Citeaux,  of  which  he  might 
be  considered  as  the  second  founder. 

Were  I  now  to  relate  what  his  life  was,  in  its  abstraction 
from  all  sensible  objects,  its  absorption  in  divine  musings,  its 
watchings,  its  incessant  prayer,  its  labour  of  the  hands — it 
would  seem  the  fiction  of  romance  and  unworthy  of  belief. 
And  yet  of  what  is  not  the  mind  capable,  when  it  has  been 
early  disciplined;  strongly  impressed;  no  affections,  as  in 
the  young  Bernard,  nurtured  by  indulgence  into  passions; 
and  the  spirit  universally  triumphant?  His  thoughts,  unas- 


TO  1200.]  ST.  BERNARD.  187 

sociated  with  earthly  objects,  unless  as  these  were  connected 
with  the  Supreme  Being,  became  incapable  of  distraction. 
"  I  meditated,"  said  he,  "  on  the  word  of  God,  and  the  fields 
and  the  forests  taught  me  its  secret  meaning:  the  oaks  and 
beeches  were  my  masters."  With  the  help  of  these  intei'pre- 
ters,  when  their  aid  was  necessary,  he  read  the  scriptures, 
going  over  them  without  a  comment;  "for  their  own  words," 
he  observed,  "explain  their  meaning  best;  and  in  those 
words  may  be  found  the  real  force  of  the  truths  which  they 
convey." 

After  two  years  this  extraordinary  youth  was  translated, 
with  the  jurisdiction  of  an  abbot,  to  a  new  establishment  at 
Clairvaux,  a  barren  and  neglected  spot,  the  retreat  of  thieves, 
and,  from  its  state  of  desolation,  called  the  vale  of  wormwood. 
This  community  endured  great  distresses  from  the  ungrate- 
fulness of  the  soil,  if  minds  such  as  theirs  could  be  afflicted 
by  penury:  "  Men,"  says  the  historian,  "  who,  as  it  were  but 
yesterday,  abounded  in  wealth  and  the  luxuries  of  life,  now 
suffered,  without  a  murmur,  fatigue,  hunger,  thirst,  and  cold, 
not  anxious  for  themselves,  but  anxious  only  so  to  labour, 
that  their  successors  might  not  perish  through  want."  He 
adds:  "As  you  descended  the  hill  towards  the  convent,  its 
simple  and  lowly  buildings  seemed  at  once  to  say  that  they 
were  the  dwelling  of  God.  The  vale,  indeed,  was  peopled, 
but  each  inhabitant  was  employed  in  his  allotted  portion  of 
labour,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  sounds  which  this  might 
produce,  the  deep  silence  of  the  night  prevailed  through  the 
day,  only  broken  at  stated  intervals  by  songs  of  gratitude 
addressed  to  their  heavenly  Father.  Among  these  the  abbot 
was  also  seen  to  labour  with  the  rest:  at  other  times,  filled 
with  sublime  contemplations,  his  mind  ruminated  on  celestial 
truths;  or  else,  issuing  from  his  cell,  in  a  language  which 
seemed  more  than  human,  he  imparted  to  his  pupils  those 
truths,  the  depth  of  which  they  could  not  fathom,  or  incul- 
cated lessons  of  moral  excellence,  which  were  too  exalted  for 
their  attainment.  His  person  exhibited  great  elegance  of  form, 
and  his  countenance  was  marked  by  the  lineaments  of  beauty; 
but  both  were  soon  impaired  by  the  austerity  of  his  life  and 
the  insalubrious  and  debilitating  rigour  of  his  abstinence. 

His  contemporaries'   write  of  him  with    the  enthusiasm. 

1  Si.'e  various  extracts  in  all  modern  writers  on  ecclesiastical  matters, 
particularly  in  the  accurate  Fleury,  xiv. 


188  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

which  the  character  of  his  life  was  calculated  to  excite;  and 
though  I  know  not  that  the  ascetic  exercises  which  he  incul- 
cated were  at  all  auxiliary  to  the  cause  of  learning,  I  can  still 
view  them  with  satisfaction.  They  prove  that  apathy  or 
inaction  is  not  a  state  which  the  mind  of  man  can  long 
endure;  that  it  will  force  itself  into  exercise;  and  that  a 
proper  direction  of  its  powers  is  all  that  is  wanting  to  effect 
the  accomplishment  of  what  is  great  and  good.  Of  this  ten- 
dency to  action  we  shall  soon  behold  other  proofs.  And 
whilst  Europe  in  its  crusading  frenzy  was  busily  engaged  in 
the  wildest  schemes  of  warfare,  who  can  look  into  the  retreats 
of  Clairvaux  and  not  enjoy  their  peaceful  serenity?  In  the 
estimation  of  many,  a  turn  more  consistent  with  sound  reason 
and  public  utility  might  have  been  given  to  the  exertions 
which  we  have  beheld.  For  had  they  taken  the  course  of 
letters,  no  common  bounds  would  have  limited  their  progress; 
but  the  times,  and  the  eccentricities  to  which  they  gave  rise, 
must  be  considered;  and  besides,  was  it  nothing  to  have  con- 
verted the  vale  of  wormwood  into  a  region  of  abundance,  and 
to  have  clothed  with  vines  the  surrounding  hills?  Men  addicted 
to  literary  pursuits  do  not  easily  descend  to  the  laborious 
exercises  of  the  field.  As  I  proceed  in  this  inquiry,  I  am  some- 
times almost  induced  to  think,  that  if  fewer  monastic  esta- 
blishments had  been  formed,  or  if,  being  formed,  had  study, 
rather  than  manual  labour,  divided  the  hours  of  the  day,  the 
provinces  of  our  western  world  would  still  have  beheld  the 
surface  disgraced  by  more  dreary  wastes,  more  unhealthy 
marshes,  or  more  impenetrable  forests. 

The  fame  of  the  exemplary  virtues  and  high  attainments  of 
the  abbot  of  Clairvaux  was  not  long  confined  within  its  walls; 
and  they  who  may  be  curious  to  trace  the  incidents  of  his 
life,  which  closed  in  the  year  1153,  will  find  that  what  I  said 
of  the  part  which  he  acted  during  that  period  in  all  the  great 
concerns  of  Europe,  was  far  within  the  bounds  of  truth.  We 
may  believe  that  he  was  drawn  from  his  convent  with  reluc- 
tance; but  such  was  the  ardour  of  his  mind  when  once  it 
could  be  turned  to  business,  so  great  was  his  earnestness  in 
every  art  in  which  he  engaged,  so  persuasive  was  his  speech, 
and  so  irresistible  the  weight  of  his  advice,  the  authority  of 
his  name,  and  when  irritated,  the  means  of  his  indignation, 
that  there  was  no  measure  so  arduous  Avhich  he  would  not 
undertake,  and  no  undertaking,  as  far  as  he  was  concerned, 


TO   1200.]  ST.  BERNARD.  189 

which  he  did  not  accomplish.  We  see  him  in  France,  Italy, 
and  Germany,  swaying  the  decisions  of  synods  by  his  voice, 
maintaining,  through  a  severe  contest  of  many  years,  the 
rightful  election  of  Innocent  II.,  and  ultimately  subduing  all 
opposition;  reconciling  the  differences  of  princes,  and  re- 
storing peace  to  contending  factions;  upholding  the  integrity 
of  the  Christian  faith,  and  oppugning  error;  preaching  the 
second  crusade  when  the  most  reluctant  were  compelled  to 
espouse  the  fatal  measure,  and  the  command  of  the  armies  was 
offered  to  his  direction.  And  in  all  this  interval,  as  often  as 
circumstances  would  permit,  he  anxiously  hastened  back  to 
Clairvaux,  where  he  practised  the  lessons  of  his  youth,  exhi- 
bited the  humble  virtues  of  a  recluse,  and  prepared  his  mind 
for  new  undertakings. 

The  works  which  he  has  left  behind  him  are  various  as  they 
are  numerous,  and  comprised  under  the  principal  heads  of 
Sermons,  Epistles,  and  Moral  Treatises.  These  may  be  read 
with  pleasure;  for  his  style,  far  above  the  standard  of  the  age, 
is  pure,  animated,  and  concise:  his  thoughts  sometimes  sub- 
lime, often  full  of  dignity,  and  always  fitted  to  the  subject; 
while  the  subjects  themselves  comprise  all  the  diversities  which 
religious  and  moral  considerations,  the  duties  of  the  monastic 
life,  and  the  numberless  concerns  of  the  Christian  common- 
wealth could  supply.  His  letters,  which  are  no  less  than  four 
hundred  and  forty-four,  record  many  historical  facts,  inter- 
spersed with  sage  reflections  and  apposite  advice.  But  his 
sermons  display  the  most  extraordinary  fertility  of  mind,  as,  on 
the  two  first  chapters  only  of  the  Book  of  Canticles  and  the 
first  verse  of  the  third,  he  was  able  to  deliver  to  his  monks, 
seemingly  with  the  most  easy  flow  of  thought,  eighty-six  dis- 
courses! The  antithesis,  which,  perhaps,  is  no  proof  of  taste, 
is  the  figure  which  he  introduces  with  most  frequency.  In 
addressing  the  highest  characters,  princes  or  pontiffs,  he  writes 
with  the  utmost  freedom  and  unreserve,  censures  every  abuse, 
and  spares  no  deviation  from  the  line  of  rectitude  and  esta- 
blished order.  This  he  particularly  evinced  in  his  treatise  De 
Consideratione,  addressed  to  Eugenius  III.  who  had  been  his 
pupil,  in  which  he  states,  without  disguise,  what  are  the  duties 
of  the  first  pastor;  blames  the  many  irregular  proceedings  of 
the  Roman  court,  and  urges  the  necessity  of  a  reform.  The 
tract  which  he  styles  his  Apology,  is  written  with  great  acute- 
ness,  and  is  an  amusing  performance.  It  was  intended  as  a 


190         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

justification  of  himself  and  others  for  what  they  were  accused 
of  having  uttered  against  the  Benedictine  monks,  particularly 
those  of  Clugni.  He  denies  the  general  charge;  but  lest  it 
should  be  inferred,  from  the  praise  which  he  freely  bestows  on 
their  institute  and  their  manifold  good  deeds,  that  he  was 
really  blind  to  their  irregularities,  he  furnishes  a  minute  de- 
scription of  their  luxurious  tables,  their  costly  modes  of  attire, 
and  their  sumptuous  equipages,  which  the  Roman  satirist  in 
his  severest  mood  might  have  perused  with  satisfaction.  His 
theology  is  perspicuous,  addressed  rather  to  the  heart  than  to 
the  head;  and  he  treats  of  doctrines  after  the  manner  of  the 
ancients,  in  a  plain  and  simple  exposition,  filled  indeed  too 
much  with  allegories,  but  pervaded  by  that  devotional  fervour 
which  the  French  call  onction.  He  has  acquired  the  appella- 
tion of  the  mellifluous  doctor.  The  facility  with  which  in 
almost  every  period  he  introduces  the  words  of  Scripture,  is 
really  admirable,  and  their  application  is  seldom  forced  or 
unappropriate.  From  the  candid  ingenuousness  of  his  mind 
he  was  an  enemy  to  all  sophistry  and  deceit.  He  therefore 
ever  strenuously  opposed  the  scholastic  refinements  which 
prevailed  at  this  time;  by  which  the  simplicity  of  the  Christian 
faith  was  perplexed,  and  of  which  the  celebrated  Peter  Abail- 
ard  now  professed  himself  the  master. 

Before  I  speak  of  Abailard,  whose  name  is  essentially  con- 
nected with  letters,  I  must  observe,  that  the  new  method  of 
philosophising  in  religion  to  which  I  allude  had  grown  out 
of  the  more  sober  rules  which  were  established  by  the  great 
masters  of  the  Bea  school  in  their  theological  lectures.  It 
was  the  dialectic  art,  rendered  complicated  and  mysterious  by 
metaphysical  terms  and  subtleties,  applied,  as  a  test  of  truth, 
to  every  subject,  and  particularly  to  those  of  religion.  But 
it  is  evident  that  religion  could  not  be  benefited  by  such 
an  auxiliary;  and  what  service  was  it  likely  to  render  to 
philosophy?  The  object  of  these  doctors  was  not  so  much  to 
elucidate  truth  or  to  promote  its  interests,  as  to  perplex  by 
abstruse  and  elaborate  distinctions;  and  on  every  question 
to  evince  an  imperturbable  obstinacy.  No  attention  was  paid 
to  the  realities  of  nature  nor  to  the  operations  of  the  human 
mind,  but  the  wildest  fictions  and  the  most  palpable  sophisms 
were  embodied  in  a  nomenclature  of  distinctions,  which 
seemed  calculated  for  the  defence  of  error  rather  than  the 
support  of  truth.  It  had,  however,  a  powerful  tendency  to 


TO  1200.]  SCHOLASTICISM  INTRODUCED.  191 

exercise  the  faculties  of  the  mind,  the  extraordinary  display 
of  which  often  attracted  admiration,  particularly  of  numbers 
who  flocked  to  the  schools,  and  crowned  the  triumphs  of  the 
masters  with  their  applause.  The  feats  of  the  Grecian, 
sophists,  which  had  been  exhibited  in  Rome  and  in  Athens, 
were  repeated  in  the  twelfth  century  on  the  benches  of  our 
Christian  schools,  and  with  the  nearly  similar  effect  of  en- 
gendering difficulties,  of  multiplying  errors,  and  of  obscuring 
truth. 

To  the  solution  of  theological  questions  the  philosophy 
of  Aristotle  had,  before  this  time,  been  applied,  imperfect 
translations  of  certain  portions  of  which  were  in  the  hands 
of  the  western  teachers.  It  now  came  into  much  more 
general  vogue,  and  acquired  higher  estimation.  Some  men 
of  curious  inquiry  resorted  to  the  Arabian  schools,  particu- 
larly those  of  Spain,  in  which,  having  learned  the  language, 
or  at  least  understood  in  what  esteem  the  writings  of  the 
Athenian  sage  were  held  by  them,  they  brought  back  other 
translations,  which  were,  it  is  said,  less  faithful  than  those 
already  in  their  possession.  Even  their  intricacy  conferred 
a  value  which  the  difficulty  of  their  procurement  would 
serve  to  enhance.  From  this  time  the  Peripatetic  philo- 
sophy gradually  obtained  the  ascendancy  in  the  schools, 
which  it  maintained  through  a  succession  of  many  years.  Its 
progress,  indeed,  was  occasionally  checked  by  men  of  sober 
discernment,  who  beheld  the  fatal  use  to  which  its  perverted 
precepts  were  applied.  The  history  of  its  various  fortunes 
in  the  schools  of  Paris  alone,  may  afford  some  instructive 
entertainment. l 

These  schools  had  now  acquired  considerable  celebrity. 
Here  the  great  dialectician  and  teacher,  "William  de  Cham- 
peaux,  afterwards  bishop  of  Chalons,  when  he  had  founded 
the  abbey  of  St.  Victor,  is  believed  to  have  delivered  the  first 
lectures  in  scholastic  theology.  Abailard  was  his  pupil. 
This  extraordinary  man,  extraordinary  both  from  his  talents 
and  his  misfortunes,  is  thought  by  some  to  have  been  first  a 
hearer  of  Koscellin,  the  founder  of  the  sect  of  the  Nominalists, 
by  whom  he  was  initiated,  as  Avholly  congenial  with  the 
character  of  his  mind,  in  the  subtle  art  of  disputation.  This 

1  Liiunoius  do  v;iriu  fort.  Aristot. — See,  on  tlie  whole  subject  as  con- 
nected with  scholasticism,  Brucker,  Hi-;.  Phil.  iii. 


192         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

art  was  generally  esteemed  so  fascinating,  that  they  who 
excelled  in  it  most  were  most  admired,  and  deemed  most 
worthy  of  ecclesiastical  preferment.  Abailard  entered  the 
career  of  honour.  "Because,"  says  he  of  himself,1  "I  pre- 
ferred the  armour  of  dialectic  warfare  to  all  other  modes  of 
philosophy;  for  it  I  quitted  the  military  life,  choosing  rather 
the  conflicts  of  disputation  than  the  trophies  of  real  battle. 
With  this  view,  emulating  the  Peripatetic  lame,  and  disputing 
as  I  went,  I  passed  through  various  provinces,  wherever  I 
understood  that  the  study  was  zealously  pursued.  At  length 
I  reached  Paris,  which  was  then  the  great  theatre  of  the  art, 
where  William  de  Champeaux  taught,  whom  I  chose  for 
my  preceptor."  But  soon,  impelled  by  a  forward  petulance, 
and  a  skill  in  disputation  above  his  years,  to  enter  the  lists 
with  that  preceptor,  he  incurred  his  displeasure;  when  he 
formed  the  design  of  opening  a  school  himself  and  of  giving 
public  lectures.  This  he  did  with  Avonderful  applause;  first 
at  the  royal  castle  of  Melun,  and  then  at  Corbeil,  which  was 
still  nearer  to  Paris,  where  he  had  a  more  favourable  theatre 
for  the  display  of  his  talents  and  more  opportunity  of  morti- 
fying his  opponents.  The  undisguised  jealousy,  indeed,  of  De 
Champeaux  contributed  much  to  the  cause  of  Abailard, 
and  brought  to  his  lectures  a  more  numerous  and  more 
applauding  audience.  But  his  health  was  unequal  to  the 
incessant  exertion  which  his  situation  required,  and  he  with- 
drew to  his  native  air  of  Britanny. 

When  the  sophist  had  recovered  his  health,  he  returned, 
after  an  absence  of  two  years;  when,  finding  his  old  master 
in  the  monkish  habit,  but  still  delivering  his  lectures,  and 
that  on  a  more  extended  plan,  he  chose,  from  what  motive 
must  be  left  to  conjecture,  again  to  become  his  hearer. 
"Again,"  says  he,1  "I  attended  his  school,  to  hear  his  lecture 
on  the  art  of  rhetoric;  but  where  in  our  several  contests  I  so 
pressed  him  on  his  favourite  doctrine  of  universals  that  he 
gave  up  the  point,  renounced  his  former  opinion,  and  hence 
lost  all  the  fame  which  he  had  acquired." 

The  sophists  of  the  day  were  wholly  occupied  about  the 
intricate  questions  relating  to  genus  and  species,  otherwise 
denominated  universals.  The  dispute,  indeed,  was  of  high 
antiquity,  taking  its  rise  in  the  schools  of  Plato,  Zeno,  and 

1  Hist,  calamit.  suar. 


TO  1200.]  PETEE  ABAILARD.  193 

Aristotle;  and  it  -was  now  revived  with  uncommon  ardour.  On 
one  side  were  the  Realists  ;  on  the  other  the  Nominalists : 
the  first  affirming,  that  the  primordial  or  essential  forms  of 
tinners  had  a  real  existence,  independently  of  intellectual  con- 
ception ;  the  latter,  that  they  were  nothing  more  than  general 
notions,  formed  by  mental  abstraction,  and  expressed  by 
words.  Champeaux  was  a  Realist ;  Abailard  a  Nominalist. 
The  questions  branched  out  into  a  variety  of  nice  and  impal- 
pable distinctions;  and  the  Universal,  such  as  human  nature 
in  the  abstract,  was  represented  in  their  language  as  meta- 
physical, physical,  and  logical,  that  is,  ante  rem,  in  re,  post 
rein. 

The  school  of  Champeaux  was  almost  deserted  after  his 
discomfiture,  and  the  reputation  of  his  rival  had  a  propor- 
tional rise.  We  then  read  of  the  success  of  Abailard,  though 
still  opposed;  of  his  return  to  Melun;  and  of  his  finally 
opening  a  school  on  the  mount  of  St.  Genevieve,  where, 
within  the  precincts  of  the  enemy's  camp,  and  surrounded  by 
his  pupils,  he  waged  incessant  war,  and  was  daily  engaged, 
as  he  pompously  describes  it,  in  the  most  furious  contests,  for 
Champeaux  had  rallied  his  forces  and  returned  to  the  attack. 
At  this  critical  period,  Abailard,  on  some  concerns  of  his 
parents,  was  called  into  Brittany,  after  which,  hearing  that 
his  rival  was  promoted  to  the  see  of  Chalons  for  his  theolo- 
gical science,  which,  as  he  doubted  not,  the  dialectic  art  had 
regularly  advanced,  he  resolved  to  pursue  the  same  path, 
trusting  that  it  would  prove  also  to  him  the  path  to  eccle- 
siastical honours. 

We  now  find  him  at  Laon,  attending  the  theological  lec- 
tures of  the  professor  Anselm,  a  man  of  high  fame  in  sacred 
science,  under  whom  Champeaux  had  studied.  The  fas- 
tidious Abailard,  however,  thus  describes  him:  "  I  went," 
says  he,1  "  to  this  old  man,  who  had  acquired  a  name  by 
long  practice,  not  by  talents,  nor  the  force  of  memory.  If, 
uncertain  in  any  question,  you  asked  his  opinion,  you  re- 
turned still  more  perplexed.  Possessing  an  easy  flow  of 
words,  but  words  void  of  sense  and  argument,  he  was  admi- 
rable only  to  the  spectator;  when  questioned,  he  was  nothing. 
He  seemed  to  light  up  a  fire,  but  from  it  issued  only  smoke. 
He  was  a  tree  richly  decorated  with  foliage,  when  viewed  at 

1  Hist,  calam.  suar. 


194         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

a  distance;  but  when  approached  and  nearly  examined  he 
was  found  to  bear  no  fruit."  By  whatever  spirit  this  judg- 
ment was  dictated,  it  was  plain  that  he  who  formed  it  would 
derive  little  advantage  from  such  a  teacher.  Abailard  ceased 
from  attending  the  lecture,  and,  with  his  usual  self-confidence, 
undertook  himself  to  interpret  the  prophecy  of  Ezekiel.  If 
the  attempt  gained  the  applause  of  his  hearers  —  who 
admired,  it  is  said,  his  erudition,  and  the  readiness  with 
which  he  strung  together  (which  was  the  common  mode  of 
commenting)  the  opinions  of  the  ancient  fathers,  excited  the 
jealous  indignation  of  Anselm,  by  whose  machinations  he  was 
soon  compelled  to  leave  Laon,  and  again  to  repair  to  Paris. 

This  theatre  of  his  renown  became  the  scene  of  his 
troubles.  At  Paris  he  pursued  his  theological  course;  com- 
pleted his  comment  on  Ezekiel;  and  launched  into  the 
ocean  of  mystery,  applying  to  every  question  his  favourite 
philosophy,  and  the  art  of  sophistic  argumentation.  "  My 
fame  in  sacred  science,"  he  observes,  "  was  soon  not  less 
widely  spread  than  had  been  my  philosophical  renown."  And 
it  was  at  this  time,  as  we  are  told,1  when  the  radiance  of 
worldly  glory  did  not  permit  him  to  see  that  he  might  be- 
come the  sport  of  fortune — that  Rome,  once  the  mistress  of 
the  arts,  sent  her  children  to  imbibe  wisdom  from  his  lips; 
that  no  distance  of  place,  no  height  of  mountains,  no  depth  of 
vallies,  no  road,  however  beset  Avith  difficulties  and  dangers, 
kept  back  the  crowd  of  pupils  hastening  to  his  school;  and 
that  England,  regardless  of  the  sea  and  its  perils,  urged  for- 
ward her  youth  to  enjoy  the  feast  of  his  instruction.  This 
feast  proved  also  to  himself  a  copious  source,  as  well  of 
pecuniary  advantages  as  of  literary  renown.  The  philosophy 
of  Abailard,  however,  had  not  taught  him  the  knowledge  of 
himself,  much  less  had  it  impressed  him  with  the  principle  of 
temperance  and  self-control.  He  fell  in  love  with  the 
accomplished  Heloisa.  For  her  he  neglected  what  had  hitherto 
been  his  principal  delight,  the  lectures  of  the  school;  and 
for  her,  or  rather  to  cover  his  own  fame,  he  was  induced  to 
take  a  step  which,  after  a  tissue  of  adventures,  terminated 
in  the  catastrophe  with  which  every  reader  is  acquainted. 

He  retired,  in  an  agony  of  grief  and  shame,  to  the  convent 
of  St.  Dennis;  and  when  Heloisa,  at  the  same  time,  had  taken 

1  Fulco,  in  Ep.  in  Abail. 


TO  1200.]  PETER  ABAILARD.  195 

the  veil  at  Argenteuil,  he  was  earnestly  solicited  to  resume 
hi.s  lectures.  He  obtained  permission  from  the  abbot,  and 
had  soon  the  satisfaction  to  behold  his  school  more  thronged 
than  ever.  "  As  was  more  becoming  my  new  profession," 
he  says,1  "  I  now  turned  my  mind  to  sacred  study,  still  not 
utterly  neglecting  the  secular  arts,  in  which  I  was  most 
versed,  and  in  which  many  sought  instruction  from  me.  Like 
the  great  Origen,  as  history  relates,  I  baited  my  hook  with 
philosophy,  that,  when  I  saw  my  hearers  were  allured  by  its 
sweetness,  I  might  draw  them  on  to  the  study  of  a  truer 
wisdom.  In  both  walks,  Heaven  showed  an  equal  favour  to 
me:  my  lectures  were  numerously  attended,  while  those  of 
others  daily  failed."  This  again  excited  jealousy;  and  as  he 
had  Avritten  a  book,  in  which  he  attempted,  by  dialectic 
reasonings,  to  explain  the  mysterious  doctrine  of  the  Tri- 
nity, he  was  cited  before  a  synod  held  at  Soissons,  treated 
with  much  harshness,  and  compelled  to  throw  his  volume 
into  the  flames. 

We  may  accompany  him  as  he  returned  with  an  afflicted 
mind  to  St.  Dennis,  where  his  stay  was  short.  He  was  hated 
by  the  monks,  as  too  severe  a  censor  of  their  irregular  lives, 
and  he  was  otherwise  obnoxious.  He  withdrew,  therefore, 
into  the  territories  of  the  count  of  Champagne;  and  after 
-i  >mc  delay,  and  the  adjustment  of  various  difficulties,  aided 
by  powerful  friends,  he  procured  leave  to  quit  a  society, 
mutually  odious,  and  to  choose  his  own  abode.  The  spot 
which  he  selected  was  a  delightful  solitude  near  Nogent,  in 
the  diocese  of  Troyes,  well  adapted  to  soothe  his  perturbed 
-pints.  Here  he  raised  an  oratory  and  a  cell,  of  reeds  and 
mud.  We  may  believe  that  his  wish  now  was  to  live  un- 
known; but  it  could  not  be.  The  love  of  science,  or  of 
wrangling,  which  had  hitherto  attracted  so  many  round  him, 
still  prevailed.  His  retirement  was  broken  in  upon,  and  a 
more  spacious  place  of  worship  was  erected  at  the  expense 
of  hi s  friends,  which,  from  the  comfort  he  began  to  enjoy, 
he  dedicated  to  the  Divine  Spirit,  and  named  the  Paraclete. 

The  scenes  of  his  former  greatness  were  renewed.     From 

the  castles    and   the   towns   of  the  neighbourhood   numbers 

mbled  to  hear  him;  they  supplied  him  and  themselves 

witli  the  homely  fare  which  the  country  afforded;  they  built 

1  Hint,  colam.  suar. 

o2 


196         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

huts  round  his  dwelling — for  they  would  not  lose  the  precious 
hours  of  instruction — and  made  their  beds  of  straw  or 
stubble.  Before  the  end  of  the  first  year,  six  hundred  youths 
attended  his  lectures,  and  a  new  Athens  seemed  to  have  risen 
in  the  wilderness.  But  even  here  envy  found  means  of 
access  to  trouble  his  repose.  The  name  of  Paraclete  gave 
offence;  and  his  former  enemies,  who  were  themselves 
incapable  of  hurting  him,  had  the  address  to  rouse  the  zeal 
of  some  eminent  men  against  him,  among  the  foremost  of 
whom  stood  the  celebrated  St.  Bernard.  To  his  mind,  as  I 
remarked,  every  deviation  from  the  simple  language  of  re- 
vealed truth  was  suspicious;  and  he  particularly  abhorred 
the  method  of  attempting  to  elucidate  it  by  the  subtleties  of 
the  dialectic  art.  On  this  head  Abailard  in  his  lectures 
and  in  his  writings  was  justly  obnoxious.  He  was,  there- 
fore, represented  as  unsound  in  the  faith;  and  the  word  alone 
of  Bernard  carried  conviction  with  it.  Abailard  saw  the 
storm  which  was  gathering  around  him;  whispers,  and  then 
loud  reports,  assailed  even  his  moral  character;  his  friends 
grew  cool,  and  by  degrees  deserted  him,  while  those  who 
were  more  constant  judged  it  prudent  to  dissemble;  and  soon 
the  Paraclete  itself,  instead  of  comfort,  brought  only  anguish 
to  his  mind.  "  God  is  my  witness,"  he  says,  at  the  melan- 
choly moment,  "  when  I  heard  that  any  ecclesiastical  meet- 
ing was  holden,  I  doubted  not  but  that  it  was  to  condemn 
me;  and  I  expected  the  bolt  to  fall.  Often,  in  despair,  I 
thought  of  retiring  to  some  country  of  unbelievers,  in  order 
there  to  seek  the  repose  which  was  denied  me  by  my  fellow 
Christians."  In  this  distress,  he  was  easily  prevailed  upon 
to  accept  the  government  of  an  abbey  in  Lower  Brittany, 
though  the  country  was  savage,  its  language  not  intelligible 
to  him,  the  inhabitants  uncivilized,  and  the  monks  addicted 
to  vice.  He  quitted  the  Paraclete,  when  in  his  forty-seventh 
year;  and  about  the  year  1128  repaired  to  the  abbey  of 
St.  Gildas,  which  he  soon  found  to  be  a  station  of  more  vex- 
atious solicitudes  than  what  hitherto  he  had  experienced.  At 
the  same  time  the  nuns  of  Argenteuil  being  expelled  from. 
their  convent,  he  had  it  in  his  power  to  make  over  to  them, 
and  with  them  to  Heloisa,  the  lands  and  buildings  of  the 
Paraclete.1 

I  have  followed  the  memoirs  of  his  sufferings,  written  by 

1  Hist,  calam.  suar. 


TO  1200.]  PETER  ABAILARD.  197 

himself,  which  contain  little  more  than  an  account  of  the 
visits  which,  from  motives  of  pure  kindness,  he  made  to  the 
Paraclete,  but  which  again  set  in  motion  the  tongues  of  the 
malevolent.  In  order  to  silence  their  censures,  he  stirred  no 
more  from  his  convent,  how  painful  soever  the  station  was; 
and  this  absence,  joined  to  the  above  memoirs,  which  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  Heloisa,  roused  all  the  feelings  of  a 
heart  too  sensitive,  and  occasioned  the  correspondence  which 
is  come  down  to  us. 

My  motive  for  thus  particularising  many  events  in  the  life 
of  Abailard,  was  to  show  the  nature  of  the  philosophy  which 
was  now  so  prevalent:  but  more  especially  to  prove,  from 
the  eagerness  with  which  his  lectures  were  everywhere 
attended,  that  the  minds  of  many  had  caught  a  zeal  for 
learning  which  seems  almost  incredible.  I  must  think, 
though  the  statement  does  not  come  from  the  partial  pen  of 
Abailard  alone,  that  there  is  much  exaggeration  in  the  ac- 
count. But  if  a  part  only  be  true,  what  shall  we  say  of  the 
multitudes  of  scholars  who  rushed  to  the  Paraclete,  where 
the  known  circumstances  of  the  situation  seemed  calculated 
to  damp  the  most  ardent  curiosity?  And  what  were  the 
lectures  which  were  such  a  powerful  centre  of  attraction? 
They  were  not  the  sublime  rhapsodies,  conveyed  in  the  en- 
chanting melody  of  the  Greek  tongue,  with  which  Plato  cap- 
tivated the  attention  of  his  hearers;  nor  were  they  highly- 
finished  orations,  nor  patriotic  harangues,  which,  while  they 
interested  the  passions,  charmed  the  ear:  but  they  consisted 
of  debatable  questions  on  points  of  theology  or  of  philosophy, 
as  it  was  called,  on  which  the  professor  preluded,  and  in 
which  the  pupils  sometimes  bore  a  part,  as  we  saw  in  the 
contests  between  Abailard  and  de  Champeaux.  The  whole 
address  of  sophistry,  in  distinctions,  divisions,  and  inferences, 
animated  the  discussion,  and  entangled  the  progress  towards 
truth.  I  know  not,  therefore,  what  could  be  the  charm 
which  wrought  the  wonderful  effect,  unless  we  may  ascribe  it 
to  something  singularly  fascinating  in  the  manner  of  the 
speaker.  The  style  of  Abailard,  as  we  may  judge  from  his 
writings,  was  void  of  all  elegance  and  perspicuity;  and  the 
subjects  which  he  discussed  were  arid  and  uninviting.  But 
one  general  inference  may  be  drawn,  that,  notwithstanding 
the  inauspicious  character  of  the  times,  there  was,  in  all 
countries,  an  increasing  thirst  for  intellectual  improvement; 


198         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

and  that,  had  Abailard  himself  possessed  a  taste,  formed  on 
the  classical  models  of  antiquity,  his  influence  was  so  com- 
manding that  he  might  have  infused  the  same  taste  into  the 
minds  of  his  hearers,  and  have  accelerated,  by  some  centuries, 
the  revival  of  letters. 

It  appears  that  Abailard,  quitting  the  turbulent  monks  of 
St.  Gildas,  resumed  his  lectures  on  the  mount  of  St.  Gene- 
vieve,  at  Paris,  about  the  year  1137,  when  our  countryman 
John  of  Salisbury  was  among  his  hearers.  "  Then,"  says  he,1 
"  that  great  man  taught.  At  his  feet  I  imbibed  the  first  rudi- 
ments of  science,  and,  as  far  as  my  tender  mind  would  then 
permit,  eagerly  caught  whatever  fell  from  his  lips.  But  he 
hastily  left  us."  This  hasty  departure  was  caused  by  the 
troubles  by  which  he  was  again  menaced.  He  had  written 
other  works  which,  though  admired  by  many,  and  as  it  is 
said,  even  read  with  applause  in  the  Roman  court,  gave 
offence  to  the  more  timorous,  and  particularly  to  St.  Bernard, 
when  certain  propositions,  extracted  from  them,  were  offi- 
ciously submitted  to  his  consideration.  Abailard  appeared 
before  a  synod  convened  at  Sens,  where,  from  what  motives 
cannot  be  conjectured,  declining  all  defence,  and  appealing 
to  Rome,  he  witnessed  the  condemnation  of  his  errors,  and  was 
himself  permitted  to  depart.  He  published  an  Apology: 
"  Some  things,  perhaps,"  he  says,  "  I  may  have  written  by 
mistake,  which  should  not  have  been  said;  but  I  call  God 
to  witness  and  to  judge  my  soul,  that,  in  what  is  imputed  to 
me,  I  am  not  chargeable  with  malice  nor  with  pride."  Calling 
at  Clugni  on  his  way  to  Rome,  he  was  detained  by  Peter  the 
Venerable,  abbot  of  the  convent,  by  whose  benevolent  inter- 
position he  was  reconciled  to  St.  Bernard;  and,  after  two 
years  spent  in  learned  repose  and  in  devotional  observances, 
he  closed  a  life  of  trouble  in  1142,  in  the  sixty -third  year  of 
his  age. 

It  is  unnecessary,  after  what  has  been  said,  to  speak  of  his 
works,  which  are  chiefly  theological.  Heloisa  was  a  more 
elegant  writer,  and  the  powers  of  her  mind  were  certainly 
great:  but  I  am  not  disposed  to  think,  that  she  possessed  so 
much  erudition  or  was  so  well  acquainted  with  the  Greek  and 
Hebrew  languages,  and  with  the  sublimer  sciences,  as  her  too 
partial  encomiasts  and  Abailard  have  asserted.  In  the 

1  Metalog.  ii.  quoted  by  Brucker,  Hist.  PLil.  iii. 


TO  1200.]  PETER  ABAILAKD.  199 

women  or  in  the  men  of  that  period,  a  scanty  portion  of  learn- 
ing was  more  than  sufficient  to  create  a  phenomenon. 

The  following  epitaph,  which  is  inscribed  on  the  tomb 
of  Abailard,  may  be  taken  as  a  sample  of  the  poetry  of  the 
age. 

Gallorum  Socrates,  Plato  maximus  Hisperiarum, 
Noster  Aristoteles,  logicis,  quicunque  fuerunt. 
Aut  par  aut  melior,  studiorutn  cognitus  orbi 
Princeps,  ingenio  varius,  subtilis  et  acer, 
Omnia  vi  superans  rationis  et  arte  loquendi, 
Abeillardtis  erat ;  sed  tune  magis  omnia  vincit, 
Cum  Cluniaceusein  mouachum  inoresque  professus, 
Ad  Christi  verain  transivit  philosophiam, 
In  qua  longsevae  bene  complens  ultima  vitse, 
Philosophis  quandoque  bonis  se  connumerandum, 
Spem  dedit,  undenas  Maio  renovante  calendas 

It  was  written  by  Peter  Maurice,  whose  virtues  caused  him 
to  be  styled  the  Venerable,  and  who,  with  the  kindness  con- 
genial with  his  nature,  after  the  death  of  the  ill-fated  man, 
transmitted  his  body  to  the  Paraclete,  attended  the  obsequies, 
and  delivered  an  oration  in  his  praise.  I  will  add  of  him, 
that  to  uncommon  gentleness  of  heart  he  joined  an  excellent 
understanding,  and  a  degree  of  literary  accomplishments  not 
surpassed  by  any  scholar  of  the  age.  His  letters,1  which 
form  the  principal  part  of  his  works  as  far  as  I  have  read 
them,  seem  written  with  purity  and  ease;  enlivened  by 
sprightliness,  and  invigorated  by  reflection.  Impelled  by  a 
laudable  desire  to  acquire  some  knowledge  of  the  Arabian 
literature  and  religion,  he  travelled  into  Spain,  where  he  spent 
some  time  among  that  extraordinary  people,  acquired  their 
language,  and  translated  the  Koran  into  Latin,2  the  errors  of 
which  he  afterwards  undertook  to  refute.  On  his  arrival  in 
Spain,  we  are  told  that  he  found  men  of  learning  from 
England  and  other  countries,  sedulously  applying  themselves 
to  the  study  of  astrology,  in  which  the  Arabians  were  so 
renowned.  It  speaks  not  much  in  favour  of  our  Christian 
taste,  that  when  the  Arabian  schools  in  the  various  branches 
of  science  had  so  much  to  offer,  we  should  have  selected 
that  which  has  been  known  invariably  to  accompany  a  drivel- 
ling superstition,  and  an  utter  ignorance  of  the  laws  of  nature. 

1  In  Bib.  P.  P.  xii.  -  En.  iv.  ep.  17. 


200         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

But  by  astrology,  perhaps,  should  be  understood,  as  at  least 
connected  with  it,  astronomy,  or  that  study  of  the  heavens 
which  the  disciples  of  Mahomet  had  brought  with  them  from 
the  East,  and  which  they  continued  to  cultivate  under 
another  sky. 

Among  the  many  scholars  of  Abailard,  Peter,  bishop  of 
Paris,  surnamed  Lombard,  from  the  country  which  gave  him 
birth,  acquired  the  highest  distinction  in  the  theological  schools 
of  Europe.  He  has  been  denominated  the  Master  of  the  Sen- 
tences. Appointed  to  fill  the  chair  of  theology,  and  aware, 
from  what  he  had  seen  in  his  master  Abailard  and  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  dialectic  art,  that,  if  some  check  were  not  given 
to  the  pruriency  of  disputation,  the  religious  truths,  which 
were  originally  so  plain  and  simple,  would  swell  into  an  un- 
wieldy mass  of  intricate  metaphysics  and  subtle  sophisms, 
he  formed  and  executed  a  plan  of  great  erudition,  and  of  more 
modesty  than  some  of  his  predecessors  had  practised,  or  than 
many  of  his  successors  were  disposed  to  imitate.  His  plan 
was,  to  state  the  principal  questions  then  in  debate,  and  on 
each  to  collect  the  opinions  of  the  ancient  fathers;  by  which 
means  he  flattered  himself  that  some  stability  might  be  given 
to  the  subjects  of  controversy,  and  some  restraint  be  imposed 
upon  the  wanderings  of  the  imagination.  When  the  Book  of 
Sentences  appeared,  it  was  received  with  universal  approba- 
tion, and  its  authority  soon  became  so  great  in  all  the  schools, 
that  it  was  deemed  inferior  to  none  but  to  the  inspired  writings. 
He  who,  in  the  discussion  of  any  question,  did  not  reason 
from  the  Master,  reasoned  in  vain;  and  men  of  the  first  talents 
could  not  employ  them,  it  was  thought,  more  worthily  than  in 
expounding  or  illustrating  what  the  master  had  delivered. 

But  the  work  which  was  the  wonder  of  the  twelfth  century 
has  long  ceased  to  be  read.  It  was  divided  into  four  books, 
and  these  into  sections.  In  the  first  he  treats  of  the  Trinity, 
and  the  divine  attributes :  in  the  second,  of  the  creation  in 
general,  of  the  origin  of  angels,  of  the  formation  and  fall  of 
man,  of  grace  andfreewill,  of  original  sin  and  actual  trans- 
gression :  in  the  third,  of  the  mystery  of  the  incarnation,  of 
faith,  hope,  and  charity,  of  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  and  the 
commandments  of  God:  and  in  the  fourth,  of  the  sacraments, 
the  resurrection,  the  last  judgment,  and  the  state  of  the 
righteous  in  heaven. 

"We  have  here,  it  is  plain,  a  complete  body  of  divinity;  and 


TO   1200.]  SPREAD  OF  SOPHISTRY.  201 

the  design  of  the  master,  if  possible,  to  fix  the  varying 
opinions  of  the  age,  was  deserving  of  praise  :  but  were  I  to 
present  to  the  reader  many  questions  which  he  discusses  under 
their  respective  heads,  he  would  be  sensible  that  the  learned 
author  was  no  enemy  to  metaphysical  inquiries;  that  it  was 
his  wish,  as  it  had  been  that  of  Abailard,  to  make  the  dialectic 
art  subservient  to  the  purposes  of  theology;  and  that,  if  he 
was  willing  to  check  the  further  eccentricities  of  visionary 
minds,  he  was  not  sorry  that  their  fancies  and  his  own  had 
already  taken  so  wide  a  range.  The  simplicity  of  the  early 
teachers  in  propounding  the  points  of  Christian  belief,  and  the 
caution  of  the.ir  followers  when  compelled  to  resist  the  errors 
of  innovation,  would  have  listened  with  amazement  to  the 
Muster  of  Sentences,  who,  in  a  wanton  licentiousness  of  intel- 
lect, discusses  the  generation  of  the  divine  Word;  inquires 
whether  two  persons  were,  in  like  manner,  capable  of  being 
incarnate;  and  whether  Christ,  as  man,  be  a  person  or  a 
thing  ?  Whether  the  will  and  the  action  be  two  different 
sins?  or  why,  of  all  the  natural  faculties,  the  will  alone  be 
susceptible  of  sin?  These  are  some  of  the  innumerable  in- 
tricacies into  which  he  enters,  and  thus  having  indulged  his 
own  propensity  to  subtle  sophistication,  he  encouraged  rather 
than  checked  its  progress. 

The  latitude  of  philosophising  in  religion  which  these  men 
assumed,  exposed  them  to  the  danger  of  error,  or,  at  least,  to 
its  suspicion.  The  master  himself  was  censured;  Gilbert  de 
la  Porree,  bishop  of  Poitiers,  still  more  daring  in  his  re- 
searches, was  condemned,  at  the  instigation  of  St.  Bernard,  in 
a  synod  held  at  Rheims,  and  Peter  also  of  Poitiers,  a  dis- 
ciple of  Abailard,  and  a  professed  admirer  of  the  Master, 
directed  the  principles  of  his  philosophy  to  the  elucidation  of 
all  doctrinal  points,  and  made  them  the  test  of  their  truth. 
Against  these  metaphysical  designs — and  he  might  have  in- 
cluded many  others — a  canon  of  St.  Victor,  named  Walter, 
towards  the  close  of  the  century,  composed  a  work  which,  with 
some  humour,  he  entitled,  A  Treatise  against  the  Four  Laby- 
rinths of  France.* 

When  we  look  to  this  country,  and  to  the  philosophy  that 
;i;ed  its  attention,  such  was  the  state  of  the  human  mind. 

1  See,  on  the  history  of  these  men  and  their  writings,  the  authors  of 
-tical  history,  particularly  Dupin,  as  also  Brucker,  iii. 


202         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

And  surely,  if  compared  with  that  of  the  preceding  centuries, 
the  state  was  much  advanced  in  energy  and  expansion  of 
powers,  however  lightly  we  may  think  of  the  subjects  which 
employed  the  pen,  or  consumed  the  midnight  oil.  In  other 
countries,  things  were  in  the  same  condition.  In  the  history  of 
Abailard  we  saw  how  great  a  concourse  of  persons  his  lectures 
attracted  from  every  civilized  land.  They  took  back  the 
science  which  they  had  imbibed,  and  rendered  sophistry  the 
ruling  taste  of  Europe.  One  evil  besides  those  which  I  have 
enumerated  was  the  consequence  of  this  taste.  The  secular 
members  of  society  had  hitherto,  from  various  causes,  mani- 
fested little  inclination  to  cultivate  letters;  but. now,  when  a 
philosophy  abstruse  and  repulsive  in  its  character  everywhere 
prevailed,  and  its  application  was  almost  exclusively  directed 
to  theological  studies,  the  laity  might  with  reason  deem  them- 
selves excluded  from  the  schools,  and  in  this  circumstance  find 
a  sufficient  apology  for  their  ignorance.  Latin,  moreover,  the 
sole  language  of  science,  was  no  longer  generally  understood; 
and  the  vernacular  tongues,  from  their  imperfect  phraseology, 
were  unadapted  to  literary  pursuits.  What  exceptions  there 
were  to  this  general  position  will  be  seen  hereafter. 

It  would  please  me,  before  I  turn  my  eyes  to  Britain,  to  say 
something  of  the  Christian  provinces  of  Spain,  which  I  have 
hitherto  neglected,  and  which,  I  fear,  I  must  still  neglect. 
The  histories  of  this  country,  as  far  as  I  have  read  them,  con- 
tain little  more  than  the  details  of  battles  with  the  Moors; 
of  internal  dissensions  among  the  princes  who  divided  the 
country,  and  of  outrages  and  crimes.  Learning,  however, 
was  possessed  by  many,  but  chiefly  ecclesiastical,  as  we  collect 
from  the  works  which  were  published,  and  the  synods  which, 
in  the  convulsed  state  of  the  country,  continued  to  be  con- 
vened. I  must,  therefore,  turn  to  England. 

The  prince  who  began  his  reign  with  the  century,  was 
Henry  I.,  called  Beauclerc,  a  name  which  augured  well  to 
learning,  though  it  seemed  to  intimate  that  to  be  learned  was 
exclusively  the  privilege  of  the  clerical  order.  He  was  edu- 
cated with  great  care  by  his  father,1  and  passed  his  early 
youth  at  Cambridge,  as  we  are  told,2  in  the  study  of  the 
liberal  arts,  which  he  so  thoroughly  relished  and  so  deeply 
imbibed,  that  in  after-times  "  no  tumults  of  war,  no  agitation 

1  Will.  Mdinesb.  v.  "  Tho.  Rudbura,  Aug.  Sax.  i. 


TO  1200.]          HENRY  I.  OF  ENGLAND.  203 

of  cares,  could  ever  expel  them  from  his  illustrious  mind." 
But  let  us  hear  what,  in  the  estimation  of  the  historian,  were 
some  of  the  liberal  arts  which  were  thus  acquired,  and  thus 
retained  by  the  British  sovereign.  "  It  cannot,  however," 
he  adds,  "  be  said  of  Henry,  that  he  read  much  in  public, 
(pa lam,)  or  sung  but  in  a  low  voice."  He  had,  therefore, 
passed  through  the  trii'ium  and  quadrivium,  though  no  adept, 
it  seems,  in  reading  and  singing.  Letters,  he  continues  to 
observe,  are  a  powerful  aid  to  the  art  of  governing,  Plato 
having  remarked,  that  states  would  then  be  happy,  "  were 
philosophers  to  reign,  or  kings  to  philosophise."  With  a 
view,  as  it  might  be  thought,  to  a  kingdom,  he  once,  in  the 
Conqueror's  hearing,  ventured  to  quote  the  proverb,  that, 
"  an  illiterate  king  was  a  crowned  ass." 

Notwithstanding  this  auspicious  dawn,  when  Henry  as- 
cended the  throne,  we  hear  little  of  any  peculiar  encourage- 
ment which  he  gave  to  letters.  But  the  blame  may  belong 
to  his  biographers,  who  are  sufficiently  communicative,  unless 
where  communication  is  most  to  be  desired.  When  contro- 
versy had  ceased  between  them,  the  learned  Anselm  was 
ready  to  promote  any  plans  of  study;  and  the  names  of  others 
are  recorded,  deserving  of  no  slight  praise  in  the  walks  of 
science.  When  pope  Callixtus  was  in  France,  in  the  year 
1119,  and,  after  a  council  held  at  Rheims,  waited  on  the  Eng- 
lish king,  the  latter,  to  soften  the  pontiff's  anger,  tried  the 
force  of  his  eloquence,  and,  what  might  be  more  persuasive, 
that  of  presents.  In  this  he  succeeded;  and  then,  to  enliven 
the  scene,  and  to  give  to  his  holiness  a  specimen  of  Norman 
acuteness,  he  introduced  some  noble  youths  to  dispute  with 
the  cardinals.  The  young  sophists  laid  their  snares  Avith  so 
much  art,  that  the  grave  prelates  were  soon  entangled;  when 
they  fairly  owned  that,  in  their  own  country,  they  had  not 
M.-cn  such  feats  of  science.  What  was  more,  the  pontiff  de- 
parted from  the  interview  acknowledging  that  nothing  could 
be  more  just  than  Henry's  cause;  nothing  more  eminent  than 
his  wisdom;  nothing  more  persuasive  than  his  eloquence. 
And  yet  this  Henry  usurped  the  throne  of  his  brother  Robert, 
and  now  detained  him  a  prisoner  in  Cardiff  Castle !  But  the 
historian  shrewdly  remarks,  that  eloquence,  which  is  well 
seasoned  with  presents,  fails  not  to  find  its  way  to  the  heart. 

We  may  ]>a--.  with  a  sigh,  over  the  turbulent  reign  of  Ste- 
phen, to  come  to  that  of  Henry  Plantagenet,  who,  in  1154, 


204    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1000 

ascended  the  English  throne.  He  had  passed  his  youth  in 
France,  and  had  not  neglected  the  opportunities  of  instruction 
which  that  country  afforded.  His  talents  were  great,  and  his 
love  of  letters  conspicuous;  and  through  the  whole  course  of 
his  reign,  as  often  as  the  cares  of  government  would  allow 
him  an  interval  of  recreation,  he  was  fond  of  passing  it  in  the 
society  of  learned  men.  Under  such  a  prince,  and  during  a 
reign  of  little  less  than  forty  years,  interrupted,  indeed,  by 
wars,  but  distinguished  by  a  vigorous  and  vigilant  administra- 
tion, the  arts  of  peace  prospered,  as  far  as  the  taste  of  the 
times  gave  encouragement  to  their  progress;  the  seminaries  of 
learning  were  protected;  teachers  abounded,  and  came  over 
to  this  from  less  tranquil  countries;  the  convents  furnished  an 
undisturbed  retreat  to  the  studious;  and,  in  short,  letters  were 
generally  patronised  and  cultivated. 

Since  the  Conquest,  Oxford,  ill-treated  by  "William,  disre- 
garded by  his  son  Rufus,  under  Beauclerc  again  became  the 
object  of  royal  favour,  and  numbers  flocked  to  her  academic 
groves.  The  partiality  which  he  showed  to  the  neighbourhood 
as  a  place  of  residence,  is  ascribed,  with  some  plausibility,  to 
his  predilection  for  the  muses;  and  he  granted  some  privileges 
to  the  place.  In  his  time,  Robert  Pulleyn,  who  had  studied  in 
Paris,  on  his  return  to  England  gave  lectures  in  theology  at 
Oxford.  By  his  exertions,  the  love  of  science  was  greatly  re- 
vived, and  the  number  of  students  multiplied.  He  afterwards 
became  a  cardinal,  and  was  promoted  to  the  post  of  chancellor 
in  the  Roman  church;  when  he  had  it  in  his  power  more 
effectually  to  forward  the  interests  of  his  native  academy. 
Here  AVC  are  told  that  the  study  of  the  civil  law  began  at  this 
period,  under  Vacarius,  an  Italian  professor,  whilst  his  con- 
temporary, the  celebrated  Janerius,  taught  at  Bologna.  Some 
offence  was  given  on  the  introduction  of  what  was  called 
Lombard  jurisprudence;  but  churchmen  soon  learned  that, 
in  the  unbounded  prevalence  of  Roman  politics,  this  regal 
science  opened  the  fairest  road  to  preferment.  When  the 
dry  discussions  of  the  law  were  superadded  to  the  jejune 
scholasticism  which  has  been  described,  we  cannot  be  sur- 
prised that  all  taste  for  more  elegant  pursuits  should  have 
been  more  and  more  extinguished,  whilst  it  was  opposed  in 
vain  by  some  few  scholars,  as  Giraldus  Cambrensis  in  this, 
and  Roger  Bacon  in  the  following  century. 

Oxford  thus  continued,  during  the  reign  of  Henry  II.,  to 


TO   1200.]       STATE  OF  CAMBRIDGE  UNDER  HENRY  I.  205 

follow  the  line  of  studies  which  the  fashion  of  the  age  univer- 
sally recommended;  and  her  pupils  were  second  to  none  in 
the  career  of  fortune  and  of  fame.  Among  these  was  Thomas 
a  Becket,  who,  having  studied  at  Bologna,  disdained  not  to 
receive  academical  honours  at  Oxford,  as  honours  were  then 
conferred;  and  after  his  promotion  to  the  highest  dignities  in 
church  and  state,  he  attested,  on  all  occasions,  his  kind  re- 
membrance of  the  favours  which  he  had  received.1  Richard 
Cceur  de  Lion  was  born  at  Oxford,  and  he  ever  retained  a  fond 
predilection  for  the  place  of  his  nativity.  But  because  his 
father  often  resided  at  Woodstock,  and  sometimes  visited  the 
monks  at  Abingdon,  can  it  be  thought  that  the  love  of  letters 
attracted  him  to  the  spot,  as,  on  grounds  not  more  substantial, 
is  said  of  Beauclerc,  Avho  was  probably  impelled  by  the  joys  of 
the  chase  to  the  woods  of  Cumner  and  Bagley? 

A  general  inference,  however,  may  be  drawn,  that  the 
schools  of  Oxford,  though  certainly  rising  into  eminence, 
Avere  at  this  time  not  remarkable  for  their  lectures  nor  their 
learned  men;  for  we  know,  as  I  mentioned  in  speaking  of 
Abailard,  that  many  travelled  abroad  for  instruction:  and 
besides,  as  the  monasteries  continued  to  be  the  general  semi- 
naries, learning  was  freely  communicated  from  sources  less 
expensive  and  often  more  abundant.  What  I  say  of  Oxford 
will,  with  still  more  propriety,  apply  to  Cambridge. 

From  the  ravages  of  the  Danes,  and  the  insults  of  the  first 
Normans,  this  nursery  had  long  lain  in  obscurity  and  neglect. 
It  revived  about  the  year  1109,  when  Henry  I.  was  on  the 
throne,  and  the  circumstances  of  the  event  are  distinctly 
marked  by  contemporary  writers.  That  it  was  previously  in 
a  state  approaching  to  that  of  total  extinction,  will  appear 
from  the  following  brief  account : — Joffred,  abbot  of  Croyland, 
intending  to  rebuild  his  monastery,  which  had  been  lately 
<1<  -troyed  by  fire,  sent  master  Gislebert  with  three  other 
monks,  to  the  manor  of  Cottenham,  near  Cambridge.  They 
are  said  to  have  been  able  scholars,  skilled  in  philosophical 
theorems  and  other  sciences.  They  went  every  day  to  Cam- 
bridge and  hired  a  barn,  in  which  they  gave  public  lectun-s. 
The  barn,  in  a  short  time,  could  not  contain  the  great  con- 
course of  scholars,  when  they  were  dispersed  over  ditferent 

1  See  If  int.  t'liin-is.  f>.ftiiiii-ii.,  the  author  of  which  labours  much  to 
collect  ;<  few  -'-I'.ieivtl  in.i'iei-ials,  not  always  interesting,  and  generally  ill- 
arranged. 


206         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THB  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1000 

quarters  of  the  town;  and  brother  Odo,  an  excellent  gramma- 
rian and  satirist,  read  grammar  early  in  the  morning,  to  the 
boys  and  younger  students,  according  to  Priscian  and  Remi- 
gius  his  commentator.  At  one  o'clock,  brother  Terricus,  an 
acute  sophist,  read  Aristotle's  logic  to  the  elder  class,  accord- 
ing to  the  commentaries  of  Porphyry  and  Averroes.  At  three, 
brother  William  gave  lectures  on  Tully's  Rhetoric  and  Quin- 
tilian's  Institutions;  while  master  Gislebert,  who,  I  should 
have  said,  was  professor  of  theology,  not  understanding 
English,  but  very  expert  in  the  Latin  and  French  languages, 
preached  to  the  people  on  Sundays  and  holidays!  Why  the 
circumstance  of  master  Gislebert's  not  being  understood  by 
the  people  qualified  him  for  a  preacher,  is  not  explained. 
"  Thus,"  concludes  the  historian,  "  from  this  small  source, 
which  has  swollen  into  a  great  river,  we  now  behold  the  city 
of  God  made  glad,  and  all  England  rendered  fruitful,  by  many 
teachers  and  doctors  issuing  from  Cambridge,  as  from  a  most 
holy  paradise."1  But  a  few  years  after  this  was  written, 
during  the  war  between  king  John  and  his  barons,  this  para- 
dise was  entered  and  plundered  by  both  parties. 

Though  enough  has  perhaps  been  said  to  convey  an  idea 
sufficiently  distinct  of  the  learning  of  this  and  of  other  coun- 
tries, I  cannot  withhold  some  notice  of  our  English  writers, 
which  may  not  be  destitute  of  interest.  Amongst  these,  in 
the  department  of  history,  the  first  was  Florence  of  Worces- 
ter, whose  Chronicle,  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to 
nearly  his  own  death  in  1118,  though  mostly  extracted  from 
Marianus  Scotus,  is  considered  as  a  valuable  epitome,  and 
written  with  much  care  and  judgment.  To  him,  if  we  except 
Eadmer,  of  whom  I  have  spoken  as  next  in  time  but  superior 
in  talents,  succeeded  William,  the  monk  of  Malmesbury.  Of 
him  little  more  is  known  than  what  himself  has  incidentally 
recorded;  but  his  writings,  from  a  certain  degree  of  elegance 
in  the  diction,  and  a  great  air  of  truth  in  the  narrative,  have 
obtained  the  commendations  of  our  ablest  critics,  and  ren- 
dered his  name  dear  to  the  lovers  of  English  story.  Robert, 
earl  of  Gloucester,  the  natural  son  of  Henry  L,  deemed,  in 
a  very  restricted  sense,  the  Mecagnas  of  his  age,  was  the  pro- 
tector of  this  learned  monk,  and  to  him  he  dedicated  his  two 
principal  works  :  "  which,"  says  Leland,2  "  as  often  as  I  take 

1  Continual.  Hist.  Ingulph.  an.  1109.  2  De  Scrip.  Brit. 


TO  1200.]  WILLIAM  OF  MALMESBCRY.  207 

into  my  hands,  I  am  compelled  to  admire  the  diligence  of  the 
man,  whose  reading  had  been  vast;  the  felicity  of  his  diction, 
which  could  imitate  the  best  originals;  and  the  soundness  of 
his  judgment."  This  may  seem  rather  overstrained,  but  the 
learned  Henry  Saville  is  not  less  profuse  i1  "  Among  our 
most  ancient  writers,"  he  says,  "  William,  for  fidelity  of  nar- 
ration and  maturity  of  judgment,  holds  the  first  place;  a  man, 
as  the  times  were,  well  versed  in  letters,  and  who  with  such 
diligence  and  truth  has  drawn  together  the  events  of  so  long 
a  period  as  to  be  thought  almost  alone  among  us,  to  have 
fulfilled  the  duties  of  an  historian."  And  when  we  read  what 
in  various  passages  he  says  of  himself,  of  his  early  studies, 
of  his  views  in  writing,  his  love  of  truth,  and  the  documents 
which  he  possessed,  we  are  led  to  form  a  highly  favourable 
opinion  of  the  historian.  His  general  history  of  England — 
De  Gestis  Regum  Anylorum — is  in  five  books,  from  the  arrival 
of  the  Saxons,  in  449,  to  the  26th  of  Henry  L,  1126;  his 
modern  history,  Historic^  Novella,  in  two  books,  from  that 
year,  to  1143;  and  a  history  in  four  books,  of  the  English 
Church,  De  Rebus  Gestis  Pontificum  Anylorum.  On  a 
former  occasion2  I  ventured  to  say,  that  a  faithful  and  ani- 
mated translation  of  this  history  would  be  well  received  by 
the  public. 

William  of  Newborough,  in  Latin  Neubrigensis,  born 
about  the  year  1136,  was  a  monk  of  the  abbey  of  that  name 
in  Yorkshire.  Among  his  works,  the  most  valuable  is  the 
History  of  England,  Rerum  Anglicarum,  in  five  books, 
from  the  Conquest  to  1197,  the  eighth  year  of  king  Richard, 
which  is  rendered  highly  valuable  by  his  extensive  knowledge 
of  the  subject,  the  veracity  of  his  narration,  the  felicity  of  his 
arrangement,  and  the  purity  of  his  style.  He  professes  to 
relate  what  he  had  himself  seen,  or  drawn  from  credible 
source-;.  I  formerly3  styled  him  the  most  philosophical  of  the 
monkish  writers,  because  I  saw  in  him  an  honest  love  of 
truth,  a  depth  of  observation,  and  a  boldness  of  reflection, 
which  could  not  be  stifled  even  by  the  cowl.  His  severe 
strictures  on  the  fabulous  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  his  con- 
temporary, to  whose  see  of  St.  Asaph  he  is  said  to  have 
aspired,  have  excited  the  displeasure  of  some  ancient  Britons 
and  of  Leland;4  and  Pitts5  dares  to  question  his  general  vera- 

1  l.i..  ad  KHz.  P.egin.         *  Pref.  to  the  Hist,  of  Hen.  II.          3  Ibid. 
4  De  Scii]).  Brit.  5  De  111.  .-Vug.  Scrip. 


208         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.    1000 

city,  because,  on  some  occasions,  lie  too  freely  patronised  the 
civil  measures  of  the  state. 

Ralph  de  Diceto,  dean  of  St.  Paul's,  coeval  with  Henry  II. 
and  his  sons,  wrote  two  histories,  one  a  mere  abridgment — 
Abbreviationes  Chronicorum — from  589  to  1197,  the  other, 
Ymagines  Historiarum — from  1149  to  1199,  the  first  of  king 
John.  From  his  rank  in  the  church,  and  the  various  business 
in  which  he  was  employed,  De  Diceto  was  well  qualified  to 
record  the  transactions,  particularly  of  his  own  times;  and  he 
has  done  it  with  accuracy  and  truth.  His  facts  seem  judi- 
ciously selected,  and  they  are  arranged  with  perspicuity;  and 
his  narrative,  without  being  very  correct  or  elegant,  is  manly 
and  ingenuous.  He,  as  well  as  other  writers  of  the  age, 
seems  well  acquainted  with  the  characters  and  great  occur- 
rences of  other  countries,  which  they  very  copiously  record, 
and  of  which  they  must  have  obtained  their  information  from 
the  constant  intercourse  with  Rome. 

With  the  last  writer,  Gervasius,  a  monk  of  Christchurch 
in  Canterbury,  was  contemporary.  His  works  are,  a  Chronicle 
of  English  History,  from  1122  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of 
Richard;  the  Lives  of  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury,  from 
Augustin  to  1205;  and  a  Treatise  on  the  destruction  by 
fire,  and  the  rebuilding  of  the  cathedral  of  Christchurch. 
of  which  himself  was  an  eye-witness.  In  the  writings  of 
Gervasius  there  is  much  curious  information  disposed  with 
great  chronological  precision.  But  he  dwells  with  tedious 
prolixity  on  the  transactions  of  the  church,  and  particularly 
the  disputes  between  his  monastery  and  the  archbishops. 
General  events  are  well  told,  and  sometimes  with  that  circum- 
stantial minuteness  which  evinces  an  accurate  observer.  In 
his  description  of  the  rebuilding  of  Christchurch,  there  is 
some  interesting  matter.  The  style  of  Gervasius  has  no 
flowers;  but  it  is  not  vulgar,  obscure,  or  insipid. 

Roger  de  Hoveden,  or  de  Howden,  was  domestic  chaplain 
to  Henry  II.,  by  whom  he  was  employed  in  many  important 
concerns,  as  he  was  particularly  skilled  in  the  canon  and 
civil  law.  After  the  death  of  his  master,  he  is  said  to  have 
retired,  and  taught  in  Oxford.  His  Annals  of  English  History, 
from  731,  when  Bede's  history  closes,  to  1202,  are  replete 
with  various  matter,  and  written  with  an  accuracy  which 
is  truly  surprising.  In  recording  events,  he  notes  not  only 
the  years,  but  the  months,  the  days,  and  sometimes  the  hours, 


TO   1200.]  GIRALDUS  CAMBRENSIS.  209 

when  they  happened.  "If  to  veracity,"  says  Leland,1  "the 
first  quality  of  the  historian,  Roger  had  joined  some  little  of 
Roman  elegance,  he  would  have  borne  off  the  palm  without 
a  rival."  But  his  style  is  slovenly,  his  phraseology  often 
borrowed  from  the  Scriptures,  and  his  narration  loose,  desul- 
tory, and  immethodical.  He  is  accused  of  having  pirated  his 
materials  from  the  histories  of  Simeon  of  Durham,  Henry  of 
Huntingdon,  and  the  abbot  of  Peterborough,  authors  of  re- 
nown in  the  same  age,  and  the  last  his  contemporary.  The 
charge  cannot  be  true  in  its  full  extent,  for  he  relates  many 
things  of  which  himself  had  been  a  witness. 

Giraldus  Cambrensis,  descended  from  noble  ancestors,  was 
born  near  Tenby  in  Pembrokeshire.  With  much  self-com- 
placency, and  a  vanity  which  has  seldom  been  equalled,  he 
has  himself  related  his  first  education  under  his  uncle,  the 
bishop  of  St.  David's;  his  uncommon  talents  and  application 
to  study:  his  great  fame  in  the  schools  of  Paris,  which  he 
thrice  visited;  his  labours  to  save  the  souls  of  his  country- 
men, who  neglected  to  pay  the  tithes  of  their  cheese  and  wool; 
his  promotion  to  the  archdeaconry  of  Brecon,  and  to  the  see 
of  St.  David,  which  the  disinclination  of  Henry  II.  would 
not  permit  him  to  occupy:  his  further  prosecution  of  learn- 
ing at  Paris,  in  law  and  theology,  where  his  fame  transcended 
the  highest  praise;  his  being  called  to  the  court  of  Henry, 
appointed  his  chaplain,  chosen  preceptor  to  prince  John,  and 
his  journey  with  that  youth  into  Ireland;  his  progress,  after 
this,  through  Wales  with  Baldwin,  archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
where  they  preached  the  crusade,  whilst  his  Latin  sermons 
drew  tears  of  ecstacy  from  listening  crowds  of  Welshmen;  his 
better  prospects  at  the  accession  of  Richard,  as  the  last  king 
would  not  reward  those  virtues  and  abilities  which  he  was 
compelled  to  admire;  his  refusing  the  bishoprics  of  Bangor 
and  Landaff,  having  fixed  his  heart  on  that  of  St.  David's; 
his  retiring — as  the  aspect  of  public  affairs  during  the 
absence  of  the  king  promised  no  success — to  Lincoln,  where, 
during  six  years,  he  heard  the  lectures  of  William  de  Monte 
in  theology,  and  composed  many  works;  his  second  election 
to  the  see  of  St.  David's,  wherein  he  was  again  opposed  by 
the  primate  Hubert,  involved  in  difficulties,  forced,  at  a  great 
expense,  to  make  three  journeys  to  Rome,  and  at  last  de- 

1  De  Scrip.  Brit. 


210         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.    1000 

feated;  finally,  his  withdrawing  from  the 'world  and  passing 
seventeen  years  in  studious  privacy.1  Such,  from  his  own 
account,  was  the  life  of  Giraldus,  a  man  certainly  of  no  com- 
mon endowments,  learning,  and  activity. 

In  the  long  catalogue  of  his  works,  the  principal  are,  the 
Topography  of  Ireland,  drawn  from  actual  survey;  but  which, 
with  some  interesting  information,  is  crowded  with  tales  of 
strange  events  and  appearances,  and  which  was  publicly  read 
by  him  in  a  recitation  of  three  days,  before  the  inhabitants, 
the  scholars,  and  the  learned  professors  of  Oxford:  "a  noble 
and  splendid  exhibition,"  he  says,  "which  brought  to  mind 
the  ancient  times  of  poesy,  of  which  England  had  hitherto 
beheld  no  example."  The  Conquest  of  Ireland,  in  two  books, 
which,  though  too  partial  to  the  English  name,  is  a  produc- 
tion of  great  value:  and  the,  Itinerary  of  Wales,  containing 
a  description  of  that  country  and  its  inhabitants,  of  which 
many  parts  are  highly  curious.  The  style  of  Giraldus  is 
affected  and  unequal.  He  delighted  in  drawing  characters, 
and  in  reporting  the  speeches  of  his  heroes  after  the  manner 
of  the  ancients,  whom  it  is  plain  he  had  read;  but  he  was 
not  aware  how  much  the  clumsy  imitation  betrayed  his  want 
of  classical  taste. 

To  this  constellation  of  historians  who  graced  the  annals 
of  our  twelfth  century,  others  might  be  added.2  They  were 
monks  or  churchmen  ;  and  though  their  writings  are  dis- 
figured by  many  blemishes,  and  particularly  by  credulity  and 
a  love  of  the  marvellous,  I  should  be  sorry  to  have  these 
defects  removed.  In  tracing  the  history  of  man  through  the 
successive  changes  of  rudeness  and  refinement,  the  characters 
of  both  are  equally  instructive  ;  and  could  we  suppose  a 
history  to  have  been  written  at  this  time  without  being 
impressed  by  the  prevailing  lineaments  of  the  age,  we  might 
view  it  with  astonishment  as  a  phenomenon,  but  could  not 
consider  it  as  a  faithful  transcript  of  men  and  manners  as 
they  were. 

While  many  within  the  cloisters  or  the  precincts  of 
churches  were  thus  employed,  other  branches  of  science  were 
not  neglected;  and  it  is  with  pleasure  that  I  turn  to  the  name 
of  John  of  Salisbury,  a  man  whose  elegance  of  learning  was 

1  Giral.  Camb.  de  rebus  a  se  gestis  ap.  Angl.  Sacr.  ii. 

8  See  the  Historical  Library,  by  Nicholson ;  also  Leland,  and  Cave. 


TO  1200.]          JOHN  OF  SALISBURY.  211 

above  the  level  of  his  age,  and  its  principal  ornament.  In  a 
work  written  by  him,  entitled  Metalogicon,  he  states  the  pro- 
gress of  his  studies,  and  mentions  who  were  his  masters. 
Early  in  life  he  travelled  to  Paris,  which  city — when  afterward, 
on  a  certain  occasion,  he  was  compelled  to  leave  his  country 
— he  thus  describes  :  "  I  beheld  its  abundance  of  provisions, 
the  sprightliness  of  its  citizens,  the  composed  gravity  of  the 
clergy,  the  splendour  and  majesty  of  the  churches,  with  the 
various  occupations  of  the  schools  ;  and  in  admiration  I 
exclaimed,  Happy  banishment,  that  is  permitted  here  to  find 
a  retreat  I"1  In  this  city  he  heard  Abailard,  and  after  him 
other  able  professors,  under  whose  instructions  he  soon  became 
a  great  proficient  in  the  popular  exercises  of  disputation, 
Sensible,  however,  of  the  futility  of  the  dialectic  art,  as  it  was 
then  practised,  he  pursued  with  success,  under  other  masters, 
the  studies  of  the  quadrii-ium.  Thus  rich  in  scientific  lore  he 
returned  to  England,  where  he  applied  himself  to  sacred 
literature  :  but  we  again  find  him  in  France,  visiting  his 
former  companions  on  the  Mount  of  St.  Genevieve,  whom  he 
describes  as  inextricably  entangled  in  sophistic  pursuits,  not 
having  advanced  a  single  step;  and  of  whose  progress  no 
hopes  could  now  be  entertained.  "  The  advantage  of  this 
art,"  he  observes,  "as  it  perfected  other  acquirements,  I  was 
ready  to  admit :  but  by  itself  it  is  sterile  and  void  of  life." 
He  severely  censures  some  professors,  who,  vain  of  their 
sophistic  skill,  did  not  elicit  light,  but  involved  the  way  to 
truth  in  greater  darkness.  The  rewards  which  the  great 
learning  and  many  virtues  of  John  merited,  he  soon  obtained 
in  abundance  in  his  own  and  in  other  countries.  We  see 
him  in  the  English  court,  consulted  by  our  primates,  particu- 
larly by  Thomas  a  Becket,  whose  friend  he  was  in  prosperity, 
and  whose  companion  in  exile;  and  at  Rome  we  find  him 
highly  esteemed  by  more  than  one  pontiff,  and  enjoying  the 
familiar  intercourse  of  our  countryman  Adrian  IV. 

It  was  on  the  occasion  of  his  being  sent  to  Rome  by 
Henry  II.  to  obtain  from  this  Adrian,  as  it  seemed,  the  grant 
of  Ireland — as  an  island,  by  the  donation  of  Constantine,  per- 
taining to  the  see  of  Peter — that  a  conversation  was  opened 
between  the  envoy  and  the  pontiff,  of  which  the  former  has 
given  an  account.  "  Adrian  had  lamented  his  many  suffer  - 

1  Ep.  xxiv.  inter  ep.  Sarisl). 

p2 


212         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.    1000 

ings  since  his  elevation  to  the  papal  chair,  observing,  that 
his  seat  was  beset  with  thorns;  that  it  would  have  been  well 
had  he  never  quitted  his  native  soil  and  the  obscure  retreat 
of  a  cloister;  and  that  Heaven  had  placed  him  between  the 
anvil  and  the  hammer,  from  which  he  knew  not  how  he 
should  be  rescued.     With  a  frankness  which  did  him  honour, 
he  then  inquired  of  his  friend  what  the  world  said  of  him  and 
of  the  Roman  church.1     '  What  I  have  heard  in  many  coun- 
tries,'  replied  John  of    Salisbury,    '  I  will  freely  tell  you. 
They  say  that  the  church  of  Rome  shows  herself  not  so  much 
the  parent  of  other  churches,  as  their  stepmother.     Scribes 
and  Pharisees  have  their  seats  in  her,  who  lay  grievous  burdens 
on  the  shoulders  of  men,  which  themselves  will  not  touch 
with  one  of  their  fingers.     They  domineer  over  the  clergy, 
without  being  an  example  to  the  flock:  they  heap  together 
rich  furniture,  and  load  their  tables  with  gold  and  silver, 
whilst  their  hands  are  kept  shut  by  avarice.    The  poor  rarely 
find  access  to  them,  unless  when  vanity  may  introduce  them. 
They  raise  contributions  on  the  churches,  excite  litigations, 
promote  disputes  between  the  pastor  and  the  people,  deeming 
the  best  exercise  of  religion  to  consist  in  the  procurement  of 
wealth.     With  them  everything  is  venal;  and  they  may  be 
said  to  imitate  the  devils,  who,  when  they  cease  to  do  mischief, 
glory  in  their  beneficence.    From  this  charge  a  small  number 
may  be  excepted.     The  pope  himself  is  a  burden  to  Christen- 
dom, which  is  scarcely  to  be  borne.     The   complaint  is,  that 
while  the   churches  which  the  piety  of  our  fathers  erected, 
are  in  ruins,  and  their  altars  neglected,  he  builds  palaces,  and 
exhibits  his  person  clothed  not  only  in  purple,  but  resplendent 
with  gold.     These  things  and  more  than  these  the  people  are 
heard  to  utter.'     'And  what  is  your  own  opinion?'  observed 
Adrian.       '  Your    question    distresses    me,'   answered    the 
envoy;  'for  should  I  oppose  my  single  voice  to  the  public 
sentiment,  I  must  be  deemed  false  or  a  flatterer:  on  the  other 
hand,  I  am  fearful  of  giving  offence.    However,  as  a  cardinal 
of  your  church — whom  he  names — has  sanctioned  the  voice 
of  the  people,  I  presume  not  to  contradict  him.     He  main- 
tains that,  in  the  Roman  church  there  is  a  fund  of  duplicity 
and  avarice,  the  real  source  of  all  the  evils;  and  this  he  once 
declared  in  a  public  assembly,  in  which  the  late  Eugenius 

1  Jolian.  Sarisb.  Policrat.  ii.  23. 


TO  1200.]  JOHN  OF  SALISBURY.  213 

presided.  But  I  must  myself  boldly  say,  as  my  conscience 
dictates,  that  I  nowhere  ever  beheld  ecclesiastics  more  virtuous 
and  more  enemies  to  avarice  than  in  this  church,  of  which  I 
can  cite  living  examples,  and  in  whom  may  be  found  the 
austere  manners  and  temperance  of  Fabricius  joined  to  the 
character  of  Christian  excellence.  As  you  insist  on  having 
my  opinion,  I  will  say,  that  your  doctrines  should  be  followed, 
though  all  your  actions  may  not  be  imitated.  The  world 
applauds  and  flatters  you;  calls  you  father  and  master.  If 
you  are  a  father,  why  do  you  look  for  gifts  from  your  children? 
If  a  master,  why  are  you  not  feared  and  obeyed  by  your 
Romans  ?  But  you  wish,  it  seems,  to  preserve  this  city  by 
your  largesses.  Was  it  by  such  means  that  Sylvester  acquired 
it?  Holy  father,  you  are  in  an  error.  What  you  have  freely 
received,  freely  give.  By  oppressing  others,  you  subject 
yourself  to  oppression.' — Adrian  smiled,  and  having  praised 
the  ingenuous  freedom  of  his  address,  commanded  him,  when 
he  heard  any  evil  of  him,  faithfully  to  report  it.  Then,  to 
justify  the  contributions  which  Rome  exacted  from  the 
churches,  he  repeated  the  apologue  of  the  stomach  and  the 
members,  these  complaining  that  he  alone  was  benefited  by 
their  toil,  and  yet  they  found  by  experience  that  without 
him  they  could  not  subsist." 

The  work  which  contains  tin's  curious  dialogue  is  entitled 
Polycraticon—QT  de  nugis  curialium  et  vestigiis  philosophorum 
— inscribed  to  Thomas  a  Becket,  who  was  then  chancellor  of 
England.  With  much  accuracy  the  author  describes  the 
manners  of  the  great,  and  freely  censures  their  amusements, 
their  want  of  learning,  and  their  unprofitable  waste  of  time. 
With  equal  boldness  he  speaks  of  churchmen  and  of  monks, 
blaming  their  ambition  and  their  departure  from  primitive 
discipline.  When  I  read  the  Polycraticon  some  years  ago,  it 
seemed  to  display  great  erudition,  and  to  be  replete  with  moral 
notions,  sentences,  passages  of  authors,  examples,  apologues, 
extracts  of  history,  commonplaces,  and  citations  from  the 
best  classical  writers.  But  it  appeared  to  be  an  ill-digested 
mass  of  learning,  neither  directed  by  a  sound  judgment,  nor 
embellished  by  taste.  Notwithstanding  its  imperfections,  it 
is  a  valuable  monument  of  literature,  and  exhibits  in  a  pleas- 
ing manner  the  talents,  the  good  sense,  and  the  learning  of 
John  of  Salisbury. 

I  have  perused  many  of  his  letters  with  delight.    His  style 


214         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  ACES.       [A.D.   1000 

seemed  best  adapted  to  this  species  of  composition,  and  his 
correspondents  were  among  the  first  personages  of  the  age. 
Their  contents,  therefore,  as  detailing  important  occurrences, 
are  interesting,  as  their  turn  of  expression  is  sometimes  ele- 
gant. How  beautiful  is  this  opening  of  a  letter  from  France 
to  the  primate!  "  Ex  quo  partes  attigi  Cismarinas,  visus  sum 
mihi  sensisse  lenioris  aurae  temperiem,  et  detumescentibus 
procellis  tempestatum,  cum  gaudio  miratus  sum  rerum  ubique 
copiam,  quietemque,  et  laetitiam  populorum."  The  contrast 
which  this  style  bears  with  that  of  his  correspondents,  parti- 
cularly with  that  of  the  martyred  primate — which  is  harsh, 
technical,  and  repulsive,  from  the  unceasing  use  of  scriptural 
phraseology — excites  a  warm  preference  in  its  favour,  and 
covers  many  defects.  From  them,  however,  and  not  from 
the  anomalous  superiority  of  John  of  Salisbury,  the"  just 
standard  of  the  literary  state  of  the  age  should  be  fixed.  To- 
ward the  close  of  his  life  he  was  promoted  to  the  see  of 
Chartres,  and  died  in  the  year  1182. 

As  a  companion  to  this  great  man,  whose  contemporary 
and  friend  he  was,  I  might  cite  Peter  of  Blois,  born,  as  his 
surname  attests,  in  France;  but  who,  invited  by  Henry  II. 
into  England,  became  his  secretary,  enjoyed  high  ecclesiasti- 
cal dignities,  and  was  a  conspicuous  agent  in  the  transactions 
of  the  times.  He  had  studied  at  Paris,  and  also  at  Bologna, 
the  greatest  seminary  of  canon  and  civil  law.  Here  Thomas 
a  Becket  had  likewise  studied;  and  hence  he  appears  to  have 
borrowed  those  maxims  in  defence  of  which  he  died.  As  the 
objects  of  the  two  codes  were  different,  they  might  have  been, 
kept  separate,  and  good  would  have  arisen  from  the  separa- 
tion; but  from  the  present  ideas  of  men — which  were  at  this 
time  greatly  corroborated  by  the  publication  of  the  Decretum 
of  G-ratian — it  was  supposed  that  the  laws,  if  permitted  to 
coalesce  into  one  system,  would  give  mutual  support  to  each 
other,  and  the  interests  of  church  and  state  be  equally  pro- 
tected. Hence  the  professors  of  the  canon  and  civil  law  were 
the  same;  and  he  whose  ambition  aspired  to  high  preferment 
became  a  civilian  and  a  canonist.  This  union  arose  also,  in 
part,  from  the  almost  exclusive  possession  of  learning  at  that 
time  by  men  of  the  ecclesiastical  order. 

De  Blois,  speaking  of  Theobald,  the  predecessor  of  Becket 
in  the  see  of  Canterbury,  notices  the  attention  which  was  then 


TO  1200.]  PETER  DE  BLOIS.  215 

given  to  the  study  of  the  laws.1  "  In  the  house  of  my  mas- 
ter," he  says,  "  are  several  learned  men,  famous  for  their 
knowledge  of  law  and  politics,  who  spend  the  time  between 
prayers  and  dinner  in  lecturing,  disputing,  and  examining 
causes.  To  us  all  the  knotty  questions  of  the  kingdom  are 
referred,  which  are  produced  in  the  common  hall,  and  each  in 
his  order,  having  first  prepared  himself,  declares,  with  all  the 
eloquence  and  acuteness  in  his  power,  but  without  wrangling, 
what  is  wisest  and  safest  to  be  done.  And  if  Heaven  suggest 
the  best  opinion  to  the  youngest  amongst  us,  we  agree  to  it 
without  envy  or  detraction." 

The  subjects  treated  by  De  Blois  are  chiefly  theological; 
but  his  letters  alone  are  now  read,  of  which  the  style  is  not 
equal  to  that  of  John  of  Salisbury.  Like  his,  they  abound  in 
quotations  from  scripture  and  from  ecclesiastical  and  profane 
writers,  which  were  then  falsely  deemed  the  test  of  erudition; 
but  the  selection  is  made  without  judgment  or  taste;  and  where 
the  author  professes  to  speak  from  himself,  forced  antitheses 
and  a  constant  play  upon  words  render  the  style  perplexed 
and  indefinite,  and  degrade  the  most  serious  disquisitions. 

Before  I  close  this  view — which  I  have  therefore  the  more 
willingly  extended,  because,  from  the  general  interchange  of 
learning  which  now  everywhere  prevailed,  what  is  said  of  its 
.-tat»i  in  England  may  be  applied,  with  little  variation,  to 
other  countries — I  will  subjoin  a  few  words  on  that  branch  of 
the  arts  which  now  claimed  peculiar  attention,  and  in  which 
no  common  degree  of  real  excellence  was  attained.  With  us 
the  churches  of  the  Saxons  were  low,  unornamented,  and 
dark.  By  the  Normans  a  better  taste  was  introduced,  which 
soon  led  to  the  accomplishment  of  those  noble  structures  which 
we  view  with  pleasure  and  admiration  at  this  day.  In  the 
reign  of  Henry  II.  appeared  the  modern  Gothic.  Cathe- 
dral and  other  churches  were  everywhere  erected,  often  on 
the  ruins  of  the  ancient  edifices;  and  convents  and  cloisters 
rose,  which  were  at  once  monuments  of  the  piety,  the  magni- 
ficence, and  the  taste  of  the  age.  But  the  materials,  that  is; 
the  stone  and  marble,  were  often  brought  from  foreign  quar- 
ries find  the  principal  artificers  were  foreigners.  We  have 
accurate  accounts  left  us  of  the  manner  of  raising  these  edi- 

1  Ep.  vi.  inter  <•]>.  Pet.  Blses. 


216          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1000 

fices,  and  of  the  means  which  were  not  unfrequently  employed 
to  procure  supplies. 

Gervase,  of  whom  I  have  lately  spoken,  the  monk  of  Can- 
terbury, who  was  an  eye-witness,  has  described  the  burning 
of  the  choir  of  the  cathedral  of  Christchurch  in  that  city,  in 
1174,  and  its  immediate  reparation  in  less  than  ten  years.1 
He  details,  through  each  year,  the  general  progress  of  the 
work,  in  the  preparation  of  the  materials;  the  raising  of  the 
walls  and  columns  in  stone  and  marble;  the  turning  of  the 
arches,  the  placing  of  the  windows,  and  the  labours  of  the 
sculptors  and  carvers  in  completing  the  admirable  plan.  The 
architect  was  a  Frenchman  from  Sens,  who  gave  and  exe- 
cuted the  design;  but  as  he  was  hurt  by  a  fall  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fifth  year,  an  English  artist  was  employed  to  finish 
the  work. 

Earlier  than  this,  and  in  the  same  century,  the  abbey  and 
church  of  Croyland,  which  a  fire  had  also  destroyed,  were 
rebuilt.  The  abbot  had  obtained  from  the  archbishops  of 
England  and  their  suffragans  an  indulgence,  which  dispensed 
with  the  third  part  of  all  penances  inflicted  for  sin,  to  those 
who  should  contribute  towards  the  pious  undertaking;  and  it 
was  directed  to  the  king  and  his  people,  and  to  the  kings  of 
France  and  Scotland,  and  to  all  other  kings  and  their  vassals, 
rich  and  poor,  in  all  parts  of  the  Christian  world.  Two  monks 
carried  the  animating  instrument  into  France  and  Flanders; 
two  others  into  Scotland;  two  into  Denmark  and  Norway; 
two  into  Wales,  Cornwall,  and  Ireland;  and  others  into  the 
counties  of  England.  In  the  space  of  .four  years,  mountains 
of  marble,  says  the  historian,2  were  collected  round  the  spot, 
with  immense  heaps  of  gold  and  silver,  of  iron,  brass,  cement, 
and  every  necessary  material. 

On  the  day  which  was  fixed  for  laying  the  foundation,  a 
great  multitude  from  the  neighbouring  districts  met  at  Croy- 
land, earls,  barons,  and  knights,  with  their  ladies  and  families, 
abbots,  priors,  monks,  nuns,  clerks,  and  persons  of  all  ranks. 
The  abbott  Joffred  prayed,  and  shedding  tears  of  joy  laid  the 
corner-stone  of  the  eastern  front  to  the  north.  The  next 
stone  was  laid  by  Richard  de  Purlos,  a  knight  who  was  much 
attached  to  the  abbey;  and  on  it  he  laid  twenty  pounds. 

:  De  Combust,  et  repar.  Dorob.  Eccles.  inter  x.  Scrip. 
s  Continual.  Hist.  Ingulpb.  118. 


TO  1200.]     REBUILDING  OF  CROYLAND  ABBEY.         217 

Then  came  Geoffrey  Ridel,  a  knight,  and  his  wife  Geva,  and 
sister  Avicia,  the  first  laying  on  his  stone  ten  marks;  and  the 
ladies  having  placed  their  stones,  presented  each  a  stone-cut- 
ter to  serve  at  their  expense  for  two  years.  The  next  corner- 
stone, to  the  south  of  the  same  front,  was  laid  by  the  abbot 
of  Thorney,  Joffred's  brother,  and  on  it  ten  pounds.  Allan 
de  Croun,  a  baron,  with  his  lady,  and  their  eldest  son  and 
daughter,  placed  the  next  four  stones,  offering  on  them  the 
title-deeds  of  the  advowsons  of  four  neighbouring  churches. 
The  earl  of  Leicester  and  the  baron  de  Cantelupe,  with  his 
lady,  and  Allen  de  Fulbek,  and  Theodoric  de  Botheby,  with 
his  lady,  and  Turbrand  de  Spalding,  knights,  and  then  the 
earl  of  Northampton,  followed  by  four  knights,  and  three 
ladies,  placed  their  respective  stones  in  the  circle  of  the  same 
front,  each  in  order  offering  on  them  forty  marks,  twenty 
marks,  a  hundred  shillings,  the  gift  of  a  messuage  and  two 
acres  of  land,  the  tithes  of  sheep,  a  hundred  marks,  the  service 
of  two  stone-cutters  for  four  years,  and  the  tithes  of  Kirkby, 
and  of  four  other  livings.  The  foundation  stones  of  the  north 
and  south  walls  were  then  laid  by  the  same  two  abbots, 
and  the  monks  of  the  convent;  when  the  priests  of  three 
neighbouring  parishes  advanced,  and  laid  the  bases  of  the 
three  columns  of  the  north  wall,  the  first  attended  by  a  hun- 
dred and  four  men  of  his  parish,  offering  their  labour  for  one 
day  in  every  month;  the  second  with  sixty,  and  the  third  with 
forty-two  men,  making  the  same  offering  till  the  work  should 
be  completed.  The  three  columns  of  the  south  wall  were 
then  laid  by  the  priest  of  Grantham,  with  two  hundred  and 
twenty  men,  offering  ten  marks ;  and  by  the  priest  of  Hockam, 
with  his  men,  presenting  twenty  quarters  of  wheat  and  as 
many  of  malt;  and  by  a  third  priest,  with  eighty-four  men, 
offering  six  marks,  two  stone-cutters  in  their  own  quarry,  and 
the  carriage  of  the  stone  to  Croyland. 

Joffred,  who  had  addressed  each  one  as  he  laid  his  stone, 
now  having  admitted  them  to  the  fraternity  of  the  abbey,  and, 
with  the  benefits  of  the  indulgence,  to  the  participation  also 
of  their  joint  prayers  and  good  works — invited  the  vast  con- 
course, which  amounted  to  more  than  five  thousand  persons, 
to  dinner.  The  day  was  passed  in  hilarity,  when  the  strangers 
retired,  and  the  great  work  began.  The  public  apartments 
of  the  monks,  concludes  the  historian,  were  soon  completed, 


218         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1000 

while  the  church,  rising  to  the  clouds,  looked  down  on  the 
neighbouring  forest,  inviting  the  traveller  to  approach. 

By  means  like  these,  as  I  formerly  observed,1  those  noble 
structures  were  raised,  which,  at  this  time,  notwithstanding 
the  great  increase  of  wealth  and  skill,  nations  hardly  dare 
attempt.  That  superstition,  as  we  conceive  it,  was  the  ani- 
mating principle  which  sometimes  planned  and  accomplished 
the  designs,  may  be  allowed;  but  by  what  name  shall  that 
reforming  zeal  be  called,  which,  some  hundred  years  after- 
wards, could  raise  the  massive  hammer,  and  crumble  the  vene- 
rable materials  into  dust? 

The  improvements  in  civil  architecture  were  not  less  pro- 
gressive. But  we  must  confine  them  to  the  palaces,  or  rather 
castles,  of  the  nobility;  for  the  buildings  of  the  common 
people  in  the  towns  and  country,  which  were  constructed  of 
wood  and  covered  with  straw  or  reeds,  continued  to  be  squalid 
and  comfortless.  Castles  were  everywhere  raised  by  the  kings 
and  barons  for  their  defence  as  well  as  residence,  particularly 
under  the  first  sovereigns  of  the  Xorman  line.  In  the  reign 
alone  of  Stephen  no  less  than  eleven  hundred  and  fifteen 
were  built.  The  earth  was  encumbered  by  their  weight;  they 
were  everywhere  seen  scowling  oppression  and  defiance,  and 
were  often  the  seats  of  rapacity  and  the  repositories  of  plun- 
der. We  must  not  look  for  elegance  in  their  construction; 
nor  for  the  display  of  the  finer  arts,  which  decorated  the 
monasteries  and  churches.  They  come,  therefore,  properly 
under  the  description  of  military  architecture;  and  from  the 
few  which  still  remain,  we  may  form  a  just  idea  of  their  for- 
mer strength  and  dimensions.  They  were  generally  covered 
with  lead,  like  the  churches;  and  the  narrow  windows  were 
glazed,  admitting  a  scanty  and  faint  light.  The  great  hall 
alone  could  cheer  the  welcome  stranger,  in  which  the  noble 
landlord  sat,  encompassed  by  his  friends  and  retainers;  while 
the  full  bowl  went  round,  and  the  jocund  minstrels  filled  the 
spacious  room  with  their  songs. 

The  Gothic  style  of  building  bore  a  strong  resemblance  to 
the  literary  taste  of  the  age.  There  was  little  unity  in  the 
plan,  a  prodigality  of  labour  in  the  execution,  and  a  capri- 
cious variety  in  the  ornaments.  In  this  style  the  Polycraticon 
of  John  of  Salisbury  was  composed;  and  its  counterpart  was 

1  Hist,  of  Hen.  II.  Append,  i. 


TO  1200.]  STATE  OF  THE  ARTS.  219 

beheld  in  the  massy  edifices  of  the  day.  Yet  these  we  still 
admire.  But  would  this  be  the  case  did  not  early  associa- 
tions recommend  them  to  our  taste?  We  turn  with  disgust 
from  the  literary  productions  of  that  era,  because,  since  the 
revival  of  a  better  taste,  more  perfect  models  are  placed  before 
us;  and  if  Grecian  models  were  more  constantly  in  our  view, 
should  we  be  pleased  with  their  architecture,  which  is  itself, 
in  all  its  compositions,  equally  abhorrent  from  nature's  simple 
forms? 

The  arts  of  sculpture,  painting,'poetry,  and  music,  though 
the  writers  of  the  age  are  loud  in  their  praise,  and  they  were 
pursued  with  eagerness,  exhibited  little  excellence.  The 
churches,  indeed,  were  crowded  with  statues;  and  those 
motives  of  veneration  which,  in  other  days,  gave  a  peculiar 
energy  to  the  Grecian  artists,  might  now  also  be  supposed  to 
animate  the  chisel:  but  a  concurrence  of  other  circumstances 
was  wanting  in  which  these  times  were  deficient.  It 
must,  however,  be  admitted,  that  the  revival  of  these  elegant 
arts,  and  the  degree  of  excellence  which  they  attained  in  the 
dark  ages,  after  the  barbarians  of  the  north  had  desolated  the 
Roman  provinces,  are  to  be  ascribed  solely  to  what  has  been 
often  termed  the  superstition  of  the  Christian  converts.  A 
nation  of  reflective  philosophers,  or  of  calculating  merchants, 
would  erect  no  magnificent  churches;  elaborate  no  breathing 
statues;  in  a  word,  would  not  pursue  those  arts  which,  giving 
a  lustre  to  external  piety,  tend  also  to  civilize  man,  and  to 
embellish  life. 

In  Rome,  where  the  seeds  of  taste  were  preserved  by  the 
surviving  monuments  of  ancient  grandeur,  the  successors  of 
Peter,  animated  by  a  laudable  ambition,  expended  a  large 
portion  of  their  wealth  in  beautifying  the  city,  and  in  build- 
ing, repairing,  and  ornamenting  churches.  We^read1  of  gold, 
silver,  and  jewels  profusely  lavished;  which,  unfortunately, 
operated  as  a  temptation  to  avarice,  and,  holding  out  a  rich 
reward  to  the  invader,  drew  down  on  the  city  a  succession  of 
calamities,  which  it  became  the  solicitude  of  the  next  pontiffs 
to  repair. 

Painting  was  also  much  practised  in  this  and  in  other  coun- 
tries, not  only  on  the  ceilings  and  walls  of  churches,  but  in 

1   s.-e  the  Lh-i-n  of  the  Popes  in  ADU^IHMUS  siml  Platinn,  or  the  principal 
_'i.s  as  stated  liy  Doinaus,  Jlonue  /"<•/.  «c  A'cf. 


220          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1000 

ornamenting  the  apartments,  furniture,  and  especially  the 
shields  of  persons  of  rank.  The  subjects,  we  may  presume, 
were  historical.  Portrait  painting  was  likewise  sometimes 
pursued.  We  may  estimate  the  taste  with  which  such  works 
were  executed  from  the  general  standard  of  the  age.  Little 
attention  is  due  to  the  rapturous  strains  of  contemporary 
writers.  But  it  is  evident  that  they  well  understood  how  to 
prepare  and  combine  their  colours,  as  the  beautiful  illumina- 
tions of  books  which  still  exist  sufficiently  prove.  The  art 
of  painting  or  staining  glass,  which  had  been  long  known  on 
the  continent,  is  thought  to  have  been  brought  into  England 
in  the  reign  of  king  John. 

As  the  time  approaches  when  the  modern  languages — which 
had  hitherto  been  employed  only  in  the  purposes  of  domestic- 
intercourse — will  be  enlisted  into  the  service  of  the  muses, 
they  will  demand  peculiar  attention.  Since  I  have  often 
spoken  of  the  Latin  versifiers,  I  should  not  again  return  to 
them,  unless  I  could  lay  before  the  reader  some  light  compo- 
sitions on  wine,  or  gallantry,  or  love,  which  might  coincide 
with  the  design  of  the  present  work.  But  nothing  occurs  to 
my  recollection,  except  the  well-known  lines  of  Walter  Mapes, 
the  pleasant  archdeacon  of  Oxford,  who  has  been  styled  the 
English  Anacreon: 

"  Mihi  est  propositum  in  taberna  mori, 
Vinum  sit  appositum  morientis  ori, 
Ut  dicant,  cum  venerint  angelorum  chori : 
'  Deus  sit  propitius  huic  potatori !' 

Poculis  accenditur  animi  lucerna ; 
Cor  imbutum  nectare  volat  ad  superna; 
Mihi  sapit  dulcius  vinum  in  taberna, 
Quam  quod  aqua  miscuit  prasulis  pincerna. 

Suum  cuique  proprium  dat  natura  munus, 
Ego  nunquam  potui  scribere  jejunus : 
Me  jejunum  vincere  posset  puer  unus ; 
Sitim  et  jejunium  odi  tanquam  funus. 

Tales  versus  facio  quale  vinum  bibo, 
Non  possum  scribere  nisi  sumpto  cibo  ; 
Nib.il  valet  penitiis  quod  jejunus  scribo, 
Nasonem  post  calices  facile  praeibo. 


TO  1200.]  MODERN  LATIN  VERSIFIERS.  221 

Mihi  nunquam  spiritus  propbetise  datur, 
Nisi  cum  fuerit  venter  bene  satur  : 
Cum  in  arce  cerebri  Bacchus  dominatur, 
In  me  Phaebus  irruit  ac  miranda  fatur."1 

It  was  the  subject,  surely,  and  not  the  elegance  of  expression, 
that  has  acquired  for  Mapes  the  appellation  which  I  mentioned. 
He  lived  early  in  the  twelfth  century,  during  the  reign  of 
Henry  I.  The  archdeacon  in  his  sober  moments  was  a 
great  lover  of  antiquities,  and  is  said  to  have  supplied  Geoffrey 
of  Monmouth  with  the  "Welsh  MS.  on  the  early  concerns  of 
Britain,  which  the  latter  translated  into  Latin.2 

Nothing  was  deemed  too  humble  nor  too  sterile  for  the 
labours  of  the  Latin  muse.  We  have  seen  the  drudgery  with 
which  she  toiled  in  history,  in  describing  the  symptoms  of 
maladies,  and  in  prescribing  remedies;  and  I  may  add,  that 
she  was  sometimes  required  to  exert  her  genius  in  versifying 

1  Thus  pleasantly  rendered  by  Leigh  Hunt : — 

"  I  devise  to  end  my  days — in  a  tavern  drinking ; 
May  some  Christian  hold  for  me — the  glass  when  I  am  shrinking; 
That  the  cherubim  may  cry — when  they  see  me  sinking, 
God  be  merciful  to  a  soul — of  this  gentleman's  way  of  thinking. 

••  A  glass  of  wine  amazingly — enlighteneth  one's  internals ; 
'Tis  wings  bedewed  with  nectar — that  fly  up  to  supernals  ; 
Bottles  cracked  in  taverns — have  much  the  sweeter  kernels  ; 
Than  the  sups  allowed  to  us — in  the  college  journals. 

"  Every  one  by  nature  hath — a  mould  which  he  was  cast  in  ; 
I  happen  to  be  one  of  those — who  never  could  write  fasting, 
I'.y  a  single  little  boy — I  should  be  surposs'd  in 
Writing  so  :  I  'd  just  as  lief — be  buried,  tomb'd  and  grass'd  in. 

"  F,\cry  one  by  nature  hath — a  gift  too,  a  dotation: 
I,  when  I  make  verses, — do  get  the  inspiration 
i  if  the  very  best  of  wine — that  comes  into  the  nation  : 
It  maketh  sermons  to  abound — for  edification. 

••  .lust  as  liquor  floweth  good — floweth  forth  my  lay  so; 
But  I  must  moreover  eat — or  I  could  not  say  so  ; 
Nought  it  availeth  inwardly — should  I  write  all  day  so; 
l>,it  with  God's  grace  after  meat — I  beat  Ovidius  Naso. 

•her  is  there  given  to  me — prophetic  animation, 
(~n]e-s  when  I  have  eat  and  drank — yea,  ev'n  to  saturation; 
Then  in  my  upper  story — hath  Bacchus  domination, 
And  Phoebus  rusheth  into  me,  and  beggareth  all  relation." 

*  Leland  de  Scrip.  Brit. 


222          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1000 

grammatical  rules.  Subjects  of  a  lighter  kind,  as  the  birth  of 
a  child,  the  return  of  Spring,  or  the  pleasures  of  the  chace, 
came  naturally  within  the  province  of  poetry;  but  I  have 
nowhere  discovered  a  single  spark  of  genius.  Beauty  of  style, 
grandeur  of  imagery,  boldness  of  conception,  and  energy  of 
expression,  will  be  sought  in  vain.  All  is  affected,  low,  la- 
boured, puerile,  and  insipid;  the  same,  as  we  shall  soon 
see,  will  be  the  character  of  all  productions  in  the  modern 
tongues.  Yet  these  versifiers  had  read  the  Latin  poets  of  a 
better  age,  and  they  seemed  to  possess  a  sufficient  command 
of  language.  Indeed,  words  are  never  wanting,  when  the 
mind  is  really  animated,  or,  to  use  a  more  appropriate  expres- 
sion, when  it  is  inspired.  It  then  effuses  its  thoughts  in  glow- 
ing diction  and  enraptured  strains.  Of  this  we  have  many 
examples  in  the  early  songs  of  many  barbarous  people  in 
which  the  genuine  seeds  of  poetry  may  be  found.  The  per- 
sons of  whom  I  am  speaking  were  indeed  barbarous;  but 
they  were  also  the  dregs  of  a  corrupted  stock  in  whom  all 
vigour  had  long  been  extinguished,  and  who  Avere  contented  to 
write  in  a  language  which  had  lost  all  its  pristine  energy.  The 
characteristics  of  mental  strength  were  principally  wanting. 
Even  their  religion,  as  they  viewed  it,  did  not  elevate;  and 
battles  they  seemed  to  contemplate  with  a  cold  indifference, 
as  they  did  the  various  workings  of  passion.  As  I  have 
before  me  no  epithalamium,  or  song  of  war,  of  the  chace,  or  of 
love,  I  will  present  the  reader  with  an  epitaph,  written  by 
Doniro,  whom  I  before  mentioned,  on  many  noble  relations  of 
the  countess  Matilda,  buried  in  the  castle  of  Carossa,  in  which 
he  may  endeavour  to  discover  whether  it  possesses  either  the 
point  of  epigram,  or  the  pathos  of  elegy: 

"  Hos  saxo  texi  cum  natis,  atque  puellis, 
Quos  Deus  ad  caulas  paradisi  ducat  et  aulas: 
Non  hsedis  mixti,  sinceri  sint  sed  ovilis, 
Pascua  quo  Christ!  pascant  sine  fine  benigni." 

It  cannot  be  doubted  but  that  music  kept  pace  with  its 
sister  art.  It  occupied,  as  will  be  recollected,  a  place  in  the 
quadrivium,  and  was  therefore  judged  deserving  of  high  atten- 
tion. But  this,  I  presume,  was  chiefly  church  music,  which 
was  taught  in  all  the  schools  of  convents,  where  it  entered  into 
the  general  course  of  instruction.  The  son  of  the  emperor 
Otho  had  acquired  this  singing  accomplishment  among  the 


TO  1200.]  MODERN  LATIN  VERSIFIERS.  223 

canons  of  Hildesheim.  The  professors  of  the  art  travelled 
from  place  to  place,  and  sometimes  even  came  from  distant 
countries,  as  we  read  in  Bede1  of  one  John,  named  the 
singer,  who  was  sent  into  England  from  Rome.  He  first 
taught  in  the  monastery  where  he  settled,  and  where,  it  is  said, 
he  instructed  the  brothers,  "while  such  as  had  skill  in  singing 
resorted  from  other  convents  to  hear  him;  and  many  invited 
him  to  teach  in  other  places."  Still  more  to  prove  the  estima- 
tion in  which  music  was  held,  the  same  author  relates,2  that 
a  young  man,  named  Cedmon,  unable  to  perform  his  pai't  at 
an  entertainment,  and  who  retired  when  it  came  to  his  turn  to 
sing,  was  afterwards  wonderfully  instructed  in  the  art  during 
his  .sleep.  Not  only  did  he  learn  to  sing,  but  to  make  verses, 
'•'  full  of  sweetness,  in  his  own  language,  on  whatever  moral 
subject  might  be  proposed."  He  sang,  says  Bede,  of  the 
creation  of  the  world,  the  origin  of  man,  the  terrors  of  future 
judgment,  and  the  delights  of  heaven.  Subjects  less  edifying 
and  less  sublime  soon  engaged  the  attention  of  the  singing 
tribe  and  of  their  auditors. 

1  Eccles.  Hist.  iv.  xviii.  -  Ibid.  xxiv. 


BOOK   V. 


STATE    OF    LEARNING    IN    THE    THIRTEENTH    CENTURY. 


Thirteenth  century :  Formation  of  modern  languages — The  romuiic  or 
romance  language — Trouveurs  and  troubadours — The  state  of  other 
countries — Italy — Conduct  of  the  Roman  bishops — Universities — Other 
crusades — And  other  monastic  institutions — Divines  and  philosophers  : 
Thomas  Aquinas — St.  Bouaveuture — Albertus  Magnus — Roger  Bacon — 
Robert  Grosteste — The  various  fortunes  of  Aristotle — Historian- — 
Italian — Matthew  Paris — Poetry — Saxon  and  English  language — Its 
poetry — Latin  poetry — Introduction  of  rhymes — Grammar  and  rhetoric. 

THE  Latin  tongue,  though  greatly  debased,  had  hitherto  con- 
tinued to  be  the  language  of  the  schools,  and  that  in  which 
the  learned  wrote.  But  through  the  course  of  many  cen- 
turies, in  all  the  countries  where  Latin  had  been  spoken  by 
the  people,  a  certain  colloquial  jargon  had  been  gradually 
growing  out  of  it,  which  bore  a  greater  or  less  resemblance 
to  the  parent  stock  from  which  it  sprung.  This  vernacular 
language  of  Italy,  and  its  dependent  islands  of  Spain  and  of 
France,  may  be  traced  through  a  series  of  vitiating  changes, 
to  the  ancient  trunk  of  the  Latin  idiom.  In  the  more  north- 
ern states,  amongst  which  the  language  of  Rome  had  never 
prevailed,  a  similar  process  had  taken  place;  and  as  the  dif- 
ferent forms  of  speech  in  England,  in  Germany,  in  Denmark, 
and  in  Sweden,  acquired  some  consistency,  their  origin  might 
be  distinctly  traced  to  the  same  northern  stock.1  Wherever 
the  intercourse  with  other  nations  had  been  most  ruling  and 
constant,  the  rising  language  was  marked  by  a  greater  pre- 

1  See  Meusels  Leitfaden,  pass,  from  which  work,  would  it  interest  the 
reader,  I  could  extract  much  011  the  progress  of  the  German  language. 


A.D.   1200.]       FORMATION  OF  MODERN  LANGUAGES.  225 

valence  and  commixture  of  foreign  words.  The  language  of 
Spain  was  thus  affected  by  the  Arabian  settlers,  and  that  of 
England  by  the  irruption  of  the  Normans. 

Much  has  been  written  on  the  origin  of  our  modern  Euro- 
pean languages;  but  if  the  existence  of  a  parent  stock  be  ad- 
mitted— which  is  an  acknowledged  fact  in  every  country — 
the  problem  does  not  appear  to  be  encumbered  with  any  diffi- 
culties. If  we  scrutinize  the  changes  which  every  language 
undergoes  in  the  lapse  only  of  a  single  century,  as  it  is  ope- 
rated upon  by  causes  of  more  or  less  force  or  extent,  and  take 
into  the  calculation  a  much  longer  period,  and  the  action  of 
more  causes,  what  striking  or  anomalous  appearance  is  there 
in  the  construction  of  any  modern  tongue  for  which  it  is  not 
easy  to  account  ?  After  the  fall  of  the  western  empire,  the 
hosts  of  invaders  who  gradually  diffused  themselves  over  Eu- 
rope, by  a  slow  but  certain  train  of  causation,  extended  the 
influence  of  their  language  with  that  of  their  power,  till  the 
parent  speech  of  the  country  in  which  they  had  established 
their  dominion,  acquiring  new  idioms  and  new  terminations, 
with  the  addition  of  new  words,  lost  its  original  form  and 
assumed  a  new  appearance.  Or,  in  those  instances  in  which 
the  Latin  had  acquired  a  fixed  standard — which  seemed  per- 
petuated by  the  partiality  of  the  learned,  the  rules  of  the 
church-service,  and  the  admired  literary  productions  of  past 
aircs,  the  parental  idiom — embalmed,  as  it  were,  in  honour- 
able death,  kept  possession  of  the  avenues  to  science,  whilst 
its  derivative  dialects,  or  corrupt  progeny,  were  employed  in 
colloquial  intercourse  and  the  various  purposes  of  common 
life.  Thus  one  remained  a  dead,  the  other  became  a  living 
language.  But  the  progress  to  this  point  of  separation  w;is 
extremely  slow,  as  the  history  of  Italy  would  attest. 

It  may  still  be  observed,  that  when  languages  had  ad- 
vanced soffar  as  to  be  useful,  and  to  be  employed  even  by  the 
learned  in  the  common  traffic  of  life,  they  were  not  immedi- 
ately converted  into  vehicles  of  literary  composition.  Nor 
were  they  requisite  for  this  purpose.  The  habits  of  educa- 
tion, and  the  distinction  which  was  enjoyed  by  those  who 
understood  the  Latin  tongue,  naturally  attached  the  posses- 
sors to  its  use;  and  its  comprehensive  vocabulary,  which  had 
long  been  applied  to  the  discussion  of  all  subjects,  was  another 
reason  for  its  preference.  It  was,  besides,  the  wish  of  those 
who  at  this  period  had  any  pretensions  to  intellectual  supe- 


226  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

riority,  to  keep  as  long  as  possible  the  key  of  knowledge  in 
their  own  hands;  and  to  mete  it  out  in  such  quantities,  or  at 
such  times,  as  might  best  accord  with  their  interests  or  incli- 
nations. Independently  of  these  considerations,  the  languages 
themselves — which  were  as  yet  expressive  of  little  more  than 
sensible  objects — would  have  been  found  inadequate  to  desig- 
nate the  various  combinations  and  abstractions  of  intellect.  In 
the  meantime,  the  illiterate,  that  is,  the  bulk  of  men  in  every 
country,  satisfied  with  their  limited  knowledge,  and  with  the 
speech  which  ministered  to  their  constant  wants,  cared  little 
for  the  advantages  which  the  language  of  ancient  Rome  was 
supposed  to  possess. 

This  language,  therefore,  continued  to  be  the  language  of 
science  and  scientific  men;  nor  was  it  before  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, as  seems  generally  agreed,  that  her  eldest  daughter,  the 
Italian — having  acquired  a  copious  and  extensive  phi'aseology 
— committed  her  thoughts  to  writing,  and  assumed  a  new 
character.  Still  I  am  inclined  to  think,  though  no  vestiges 
of  such  compositions  may  remain,  that,  in  the  earliest  infancy 
of  every  language,  love  has  found  words,  and  reduced  those 
words  to  some  measure  more  expressive  of  affection,  and  more 
likely  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  object  it  admired. 

The  Provencal  is  allowed  by  some  Italian  writers l  to  have 
been  first  applied  to  literary  purposes.  These  productions, 
however,  though  in  themselves  deserving  of  little  praise,  form 
an  interesting  epoch  in  the  history  of  letters.  They  led  to 
more  important  results.  From  them  men  imbibed  a  taste  for 
reading;  or,  if  they  did  not  read,  their  ears  attested,  that, 
though  to  be  deemed  learned  the  study  of  Latin  was  necessary, 
fame  might  be  acquired,  and  pleasure  received,  through  the 
more  homely  strains  of  the  vernacular  tongue. 

When  chivalry,  the  fortunate  institution  of  the  dark  ages, 
enlisted  the  efforts  of  every  mind,  and  the  prowess  of  every 
arm  in  its  service,  the  languages  of  Europe  could  be  no 
longer  mute. 

In  speaking  of  those  idioms  which  had  acquired  most  ma- 
turity, I  have  just  intimated  that  they  were  the  Provencal 
and  the  Italian.  With  respect  to  the  first,  I  might  more  pro- 
perly have  said  that  the  language,  afterwards  known  by  the 
name  of  French,  was  divided  into  two  dialects,  both  of  which 

1  See  Tiraboscbi,  Storia  del.  Let.  Ital.  iii. 


1200.]      THE  ROMANE  OR  ROMANCE  LANGUAGE.        227 

bore  the  name  of  Romane  or  Romance,  because  each  was 
formed  on  the  basis  of  the  Roman:  that  to  the  north  being 
adulterated  by  a  mixture  of  Frankish  and  Normau  words, 
whilst  the  dialect  of  the  south  was  vitiated  by  words  trans- 
ferred from  the  language  of  the  Ostrogoths,  Visigoths,  and 
Alani.  The  river  Loire,  not  rigidly  taken,  was  their  common 
boundary.  The  first  might  be  called  the  French  Romane; 
the  latter  the  Provencal,  because  spoken  by  the  subjects  of 
Raimond,  count  of  Provence,  well  known  in  the  armies  of 
the  crusaders.  The  characters  of  these  dialects,  however, 
though  owning  a  common  source,  were  marked  by  strong 
lines  of  difference.  The  Provencal,  from  a  milder  climate, 
from  a  more  constant  intercourse  with  strangers,  and  from  a 
closer  affinity  to  the  mother  tongue,  was  soft  and  harmonious: 
the  French  more  harsh,  as  retaining  more  of  its  northern 
mixture.  But  if  we  number  the  countries  in  which  these 
languages  were  now  current,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Pro- 
ven^al  was  confined  within  the  limits  which  I  assigned  it; 
while  the  French  Romane,  overflowing  its  natural  bound- 
aries, became  familiar  to  distant  nations.  It  passed  with  the 
conqueror  into  England,  where  it  was  previously  fashionable. 
The  Norman  settlers  rendered  it  familiar  at  Naples  and  iu 
Sicily,  though  here  it  was  soon  vanquished  by  the  superior 
fascination  of  the  Italian  dialect.  The  crusaders  carried  it 
into  the  east,  and  planted  it  in  Syria,  in  Palestine,  in  Cyprus, 
and  at  Constantinople,  where  it  was  at  least  as  permanent 
as  the  conquests  which  they  had  made. 

As  the  progress  of  mind  in  all  countries  is  alike,  the  first 
essays  in  the  languages  which  I  have  mentioned  were  of  the 
poetical  kind,  or  what  more  properly  might  be  termed 
metrical  composition,  the  authors  of  which,  from  the  word 
invention,  to  the  honour  of  which  they  aspired,  acquired  the 
appellation,  in  the  north  of  France,  of  Trouveurs,  and  in  the 
south,  of  Troubadours.  There  was  a  close  resemblance  in 
the  subjects  on  which  they  exerted  their  powers.  They  were 
the  supposed  feats  of  heroes  in  military  songs,  with  tales  of 
love  and  merriment,  all  of  which  were  connected  with  chi- 
valry, and  designed  to  promote  its  views.  It  is,  however, 
maintained  by  modern  authors  of  the  late  French  school, 
not  only  that  the  productions  of  the  Trouveurs  were  the  most 
numerous,  but  likewise  that  they  show  more  felicity  of  inven- 
tion, and  display  greater  elegance  of  diction,  whilst  they 


228  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

represent  those  of  the  Troubadours  as  deficient  in  imagery, 
in  interest,  and  in  taste,  and  producing  disgust  by  a  tedious 
and  perpetual  monotony.  This  may  be  true,  but  I  suspect 
that  the  choicest  efforts  of  the  more  northern  muse,  if  laid 
before  us  in  their  native  attire,1  would  be  found  not  greatly 
to  surpass  them  in  variety  of  attraction. 

It  is  not,  I  believe,  pretended  that  any  of  these  authors 
drew  from  the  original  stock  of  their  own  minds;  though — if 
it  can  be  proved  that  the  first  subjects  were  borrowed  from 
the  Arabians,  or  from  the  east,  during  the  intercourse  esta- 
blished by  the  crusades — the  subsequent  progress  of  imitation 
may  be  easily  explained.  But  whether  borrowed  or  original, 
disfigured  by  a  thousand  defects  of  method  and  style  or 
polluted  by  the  grossest  obscenities,  the  compositions  of  the 
Trouveurs  and  Troubadours,  whether  in  prose  or  metre,  evince 
the  true  character  of  the  dialects  which  they  employed;  the 
talents  of  the  writers,  and  the  taste  of  those  who  recited  them 
or  who  listened  to  the  recital.  They  show  more ;  for  works 
of  fancy,  as  it  has  been  well  observed,  written  in  remote  ages, 
are  the  best,  if  not  the  only  documents,  illustrative  of  the 
manners  and  customs,  that  is,  the  opinions,  prejudices,  super- 
stitions, tones  of  conversation,  and  modes  of  life,  of  the  times 
in  which  they  were  composed.  "When  they  furnish  us  with  so 
much  valuable  information,  we  may  readily  overlook  their 
defects;  and,  indeed,  these  very  defects  are  themselves  in- 
structive, as  far  as  they  mark  the  progress  which  had  been 
made.  The  historian  chronicles  the  great  events  of  life,  the 
revolutions  of  governments,  the  characters  and  deaths  of 
princes,  the  issue  of  battles,  the  altercations  of  polemics,  the 
ravages  of  war  and  famine;  while  the  Trouveur  or  Trouba- 
dour, be  he  poet,  fabler,  or  romancer,  explores  the  diversified 
scenes  of  common  life,  and  describes  men  as  they  are.  If 
the  personages  whom  he  introduces  are  not  real,  and  the 
events  which  he  describes  never  happened,  still  the  manners 
which  he  paints  are  true. 

1  The  French  editor  of  the  Fabliaux  on  Contes,  M.  Le  Grand,  has  taken 
the  liberty  to  omit,  to  suppress,  to  admit,  and  to  arrange,  as  might  seem  to 
please  a  modern  reader  best ;  and  his  English  imitator,  Mr.  Way,  in  his 
highly  elegant  poetical  translations,  has  taken  still  greater  liberties.  We 
huve  not  from  either  the  real  effusions  of  the  Trouveurs,  as  is  pretended,  of 
the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries.  [The  collection  formed  by  M.  Bay- 
nouarJ  has  supplied  the  desideratum.] 


1200.]         TROUVEURS  AND  TROUBADOURS.  229 

Among  these  manners,  though  rather  exaggerated  beyond 
their  natural  dimensions,  those  of  the  monks,  priests,  and 
physicians,  are  conspicuously  displayed.  But,  in  truth,  what 
was  really  venerable  never  escaped  the  lash  of  comic  writers; 
as  the  malevolence  of  man  is  gratified  by  beholding  that 
lowered  by  ridicule  which  may  have  checked  his  own  irregu- 
larities, or  held  up  before  him  the  glass  of  truth.  However 
this  may  have  been,  in  respect  to  the  persons  of  whom  I  am 
speaking,  the  compositions  of  the  Trouveurs  and  Troubadours 
abound  with  the  severest  ridicule  of  such  persons  and  of  such 
things,  as,  in  the  temper  of  the  age,  were  highly  estimated 
and  most  generally  revered.  In  return,  the  Trouveurs  and 
Troubadours,  while  they  amused  the  idle  and  the  profane, 
failed  not  to  be  represented,  but  with  little  effect,  as  lewd  and 
impious  libertines. 

Notwithstanding  this  state  of  opposition,  it  has  been  re- 
marked from  the  evidence  of  documents,  that  many  members 
of  the  monastic  orders  employed  their  leisure  in  writing  tales 
for  the  minstrels,  or  in  forming  collections  of  such  fictitious 
adventures  as,  we  may  presume,  were  most  admired.  Their 
libraries,  in  this  and  in  other  countries,  abounded  with  works 
of  this  kind.  They  were  also,  it  seems,  great  encouragers 
of  the  rhyming  art,  and  engaged  the  minstrels  to  enliven 
their  festive  ceremonies  and  entertainments  by  songs  and 
music.1 

While  in  the  south  the  Troubadours  amused  their  coun- 
trymen, and  diffused  some  taste  of  letters  by  reciting  or 
singing  their  compositions,  the  Italians  caught  the  flame, 
adapted  their  subjects  to  their  own  more  melodious  tongue, 
and  improving  both  it  and  them,  left  their  masters  far  behind. 
For  a  time,  however,  attracted  probably  by  the  charms  of 
these  novel  productions,  they  themselves  cultivated  the  Pro- 
ven<;al  dialect ;  and  we  read  of  many  who  composed  in  it, 
and  who,  in  the  courts  of  their  princes,  practised  the  seductive 
arts  of  the  Troubadours.  The  Italian  tongue,  as  the  historian 
of  its  literature  candidly  owns,  not  completely  formed,  even  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  possessed  not  those  elegancies  which 
can  allure  the  poet  to  its  use:  whereas  the  Provencal,  from 
long  practice  in  rhyme  and  verse,  presented  an  easy  phraseo- 
logy, and  was  preferred  by  the  Italians  themselves.  But  this. 

1  See  Hist,  of  Eng.  Poet.  i.  15. 


230  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

did  not  last  long;  competition  produced  excellence,  and  the 
new  language  of  the  Italian  cities  was  soon  without  a  rival 
in  every  species  of  composition.1 

In  the  north,  the  Trouveurs,  whose  language  had  been 
carried  into  distant  countries,  conveyed  also  their  composi- 
tions with  their  language  ;  and  thus  we  were  enriched.  If, 
however,  it  be  true,  as  evidently  appears  from  their  popular 
tales,  that  they  had  borrowed  much  from  the  old  bards  of 
Britain  and  Armorica,  or  latterly  from  the  history  of  Geoffrey 
of  Monmouth,  we  took  back  only,  as  far  as  these  stories 
went,  the  fictions  of  our  ancestors,  clothed  in  a  new  attire. 
By  the  side  of  the  glorious  achievements  of  Charlemagne  and 
his  heroes,  are  placed  the  exploits  of  Arthur  and  the  Knights 
of  the  Round  Table,  and  the  incantations  of  the  magician 
Merlin  are  an  unrivalled  source  of  wonder.2 

Arthur  and  Charlemagne,  observes  the  historian  of  our 
poetry,3  are  the  first  and  original  heroes  of  romance,  in 
whose  chronicles  are  displayed  the  characters,  the  leading 
subjects,  and  the  fundamental  fictions,  which  have  supplied 
such  ample  matter  to  this  singular  species  of  composition. 
The  crusades  or  the  Arabians  may  have  supplied  other  mate- 
rials :  but  these  tales,  diversified  sometimes,  and  enlarged, 
still  continued  to  prevail,  and  to  be  the  favourite  topics. 
And  as  Geoffrey's  history  is  the  grand  repository  of  the  acts 
of  Arthur,  so  a  fabulous  history,  ascribed  to  archbishop 
Turpin,  is  the  ground -work  of  all  the  legends  told  of  the 
conquests  of  Charlemagne  and  his  twelve  peers. 

In  the  commencement,  and  still  more,  in  the  progress  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  the  intellectual  state  of  man  evidently 
improved.  He  read,  listened,  and  was  amused.  This  arose 
from  the  use,  in  all  countries,  of  the  modern  languages;  for 
though  I  have  dwelt  chiefly  on  two,  to  which  the  Italian  may 
be  added,  it  is  certain  that  no  speech  was  unemployed.  The 
Spanish  was  now  formed;  and  from  their  Arabian  inmates, 

1  Tiraboschi,  iv.  393.     [See  also  the  works  of  Feutry,  enumerated  in  the 
Biographic   Universelle:  Les  Etrennes  de  Parnasse ;  Giuguene   et   Salvis 
Hist.  Litteraire  d'  Italia,  and  Daru's  Hist  de  la  Bepublique  de  Venise. 

2  I  am  indebted  for  the  substance  of  this  inquiry  to  the  Preface  of  Le 
Grand,  Fabliaux  ou  Contes,  vol.  i. ;  as  also  to  the  Preface  smU  notes,  chiefly 
taken  from  the  same,  of  G.  Ellis,  in  the  English  translation  of  the  Fabliaux, 
by  Way.     See,  likewise,  the  Histoire  des  Troubadours,  and  Wartou's  Hist, 
of  Eng.  Poet.  vol.  i.  dissert.  1.  3  Dissert.  1. 


1200.]      PROGRESS  OF  THE  INTELLECTUAL  MAN.        231 

whose  schools  were  visited  by  many  learned  Christians,  they 
would  derive  subjects,  whether  scientific  or  amusing,  on  which 
to  make  trial  of  their  infant  powers.  The  northern  dialects 
were  more  advanced.  They  were  filiations  from  one  common 
stock;1  amongst  which  the  Teutonic  preserved  its  original 
predominancy,  and  might,  therefore,  at  all  times,  be  deemed 
adequate  to  the  purposes  of  composition.  The  fablers  visited 
the  courts  of  Germany;  and  we  read  of  the  encouragement 
which  they  experienced.  Even  the  emperors  themselves 
deigned  to  be  their  protectors;  and  as  the  vernacular  tongue, 
more  fixed  and  more  comprehensive  than  that  of  the  Trou- 
veurs  or  Troubadours,  could  represent  in  its  own  idiom  the 
stories  of  their  heroes,  the  tales  of  their  love,  or  the  adven- 
tures of  their  chivalry — we  may  readily  conceive,  that  if 
they  were  not  possessed  of  such  themes,  the  countries  of 
Germany  abounded  with  the  same  or  similar  effusions  of 
genius:  In  England  we  know  what  was  done.2 

To  these  causes  of  intellectual  improvement  must  be  added, 
at  the  same  time,  the  general  patronage  which  learning 
everywhere  experienced;  for  while  the  cultivation  of  the 
modern  tongues  widely  diffused  the  elements  of  a  new  taste, 
Latin,  and  the  higher  studies  which  were  dependent  on  it, 
were  not  neglected.  It  might  even  happen  that  these  studies 
would  be  the  more  vigorously  pursued,  from  an  apprehension 
lest  these  new  pretenders  to  public  favour  should  rob  them 
of  the  fame  which  they  had  hitherto  exclusively  enjoyed.  A 
fabler,  singing  or  reciting  his  tale  of  wonder  to  ears  fami- 
liarized with  the  language  in  which  it  was  conveyed,  while  he 
interested  attention,  gained  applause,  and  often  received  a 
more  substantial  reward.  Had  not  the  Latin  language,  from 
the  long  practice  of  ages,  been  devoted  to  the  pursuits  of 
science,  and — what  gave  it  a  more  imposing  stability — been 
consecrated  in  the  service  of  the  church,  there  was,  I  think, 
at  this  time,  some  danger  lest  it  should  have  given  way  to  an 
overbearing  influence,  and  have  been  lost  by  disuse. 

Italy — to  whose  cities,  particularly  to  those  of  Lombardy, 
the  peace  of  Constance,  in  1183,  had  given  liberty — soon  ex- 
perienced that  internal  animosities,  civil  strife,  and  envious 
rivalry,  rather  than  general  tranquillity  and  mutual  support, 
had  taken  place  of  the  open  and  united  warfare  which  they 

1  See  Meusel's  Leitfaden,  5G2 — 7.          2  See  Hist,  of  Eng.  Poet.  i.  Hi. 


232       LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.      [A.D. 


so  long  maintained  against  the  head  of  the  empire. 
factions  also  of  the  Guelphs  and  Ghibellines  —  the  Whigs  and 
Tories  of  the  age  —  and  the  renewed  contests  between  the 
empire  and  the  priesthood,  still  more  widely  diffused,  or  more 
deeply  impressed,  the  evils  of  discord.  The  chronicles  of 
the  times  are  filled  with  the  disgusting  recital  —  and  this  be- 
tween cities  and  citizens,  the  owners  of  castles  and  private 
families  —  of  treasons,  exiles,  homicides,  and  battles.1  Sicily 
and  its  dependent  states,  unceasingly  lacerated  by  new  pre- 
tenders to  the  throne,  enjoyed  but  few  years  of  security  and 
repose. 

Such,  says  the  historian,2  was  the  condition  of  Italy  from 
the  last  years  of  the  twelfth  to  the  close  of  the  thirteenth 
century;  and  if  letters  had  ceased  to  become  objects  of  inte- 
rest, could  it  have  excited  surprise?  But  yet  this  was  not  the 
case.  Among  the  sovereigns  who  ruled,  many  held  them  in 
estimation;  many  had  cultivated  them  in  early  life,  and  still 
deigned,  among  the  arduous  cares  of  office,  to  make  them 
occasional  objects  of  their  attention,  and  to  encourage  and 
reward  their  professors.  New  schools  were  opened.  These 
measures  were  favourable;  but  the  times  were  yet  inaus- 
picious. If  the  number  of  students  was  great,  books  them- 
selves were  scarce;  and  still  more  rare  were  those  who  could 
distinguish  between  truth  and  falsehood.  And  was  such 
power  of  discrimination  to  be  expected?  If  a  modern  sage, 
intent  on  some  problem,  but  conscious  that  his  life  was  in 
danger,  should  hear  the  steps  of  an  approaching  assassin  at 
his  back,  would  he,  like  Archimedes,  tranquilly  pursue  his 
investigation?  Such,  at  this  time,  was,  in  a  great  measure, 
the  condition  of  the  Italian  student;  and  we  may  well  be 
surprised  that  so  much,  rather  than  that  so  little,  was  accom- 
plished. 

Italy  was  now  divided  into  various  provinces,  not  connected 
by  any  system  of  general  union.  Some  of  the  states  were 
styled  republics,  whilst  others  acknowledged  the  control  of 
princes  who  had  claims  of  ancient  right,  or  freely  chosen  by 
the  people.  Though  the  emperors,  by  the  late  peace,  had 
ceded  many  of  their  rights,  they  still  retained  the  nominal 
sovereign  dominion,  which  they  were  ever  anxious  to  exer- 
cise. The  kingdom  of  Sicily,  on  both  sides  the  strait,  could 

1  See  Rerum  Ital.  Script,  passim.  2  Tiraboschi,  iv.  13. 


1200.]  FREDERIC  II.  OF  SICILY.  233 

number  many  ample  provinces.  Enriched  by  munificent 
donations,  the  successors  of  Peter  enjoyed,  even  as  temporal 
princes,  a  wide  extent  of  territory.  Many,  in  short,  of  the 
cities  which  were  called  free,  spontaneously  submitted  to  be 
governed  by  some  one  of  their  own  citizens,  remarkable  for 
his  wealth,  his  family,  or  his  wisdom.  Thus  had  begun  to 
be  formed  those  divers  civic  bodies,  at  once  so  respectable 
and  powerful,  of  which  we  afterwards  so  frequently  read. 

In  such  a  state  of  things,  when  taste  should  possess  or 
fashion  should  influence  the  niiads  of  the  great,  literature  and 
the  arts  would  be  sure  to  experience  an  ample  share  of 
patronage  and  protection.  Even  ambition,  or  rivalry,  the 
love  of  fame,  or  the  shame  of  being  outdone,  would  not  cease 
to  operate  in  the  absence  of  other  motives;  and  perhaps  the 
mutual  animosities  which  I  mentioned  might  themselves,  on 
many  occasions,  prove  incentives  to  the  furtherance  of  literary 
pursuits. 

Frederic  II.,  who  was  educated  in  Sicily,  and  in  1218  raised 
to  the  imperial  throne,  was  the  patron  of  literature,  and  was 
himself  extensively  learned.  His  skill  in  languages,  amongst 
which  are  reckoned  the  Italian,  German,  and  French,  is 
much  celebrated  by  contemporary  writers;  and  they  tell  us 
of  the  schools  or  academies  which  he  founded;  of  the  works 
which  he  procured  to  be  translated  from  the  Greek;  and  of 
the  intellectual  ardour  which  he  everywhere  endeavoured  to 
excite.1  His  chancellor,  the  learned  Peter  de  Vincis,  was  his 
fellow  labourer  in  the  meritorious  work.  The  court  of  Fre- 
deric, observes  the  historian,2  whom  I  willingly  follow, 
appeared  as  a  luminous  theatre,  on  which  the  learned  men 
met  whom  his  munificence  attracted;  whilst,  under  the  shade 
of  royal  protection,  they  pursued  their  various  studies  and 
gave  energy  to  the  love  of  science.  Among  these  were  many 
Troubadours.  Frederic  afforded  encouragement  to  their 
amusing  arts,  and  was  himself  a  poet,  as  he  had  cultivated 
the  Italian,  or  rather  the  Sicilian  dialect,  which  was  the 
language  of  his  early  youth.3  But  the  cares  of  an  extended 
empire,  the  conflicts  which  his  ambition  occasioned,  and, 
more  than  either,  his  unceasing  controversies  with  the  Ro- 
man bishops — by  whom  he  was  charged  with  the  commission 
of  every  crime — necessarily  diverted  lu's  mind  from  literary 

1  Brucker,  Hist.  Phil.  iii.  2  Tiraboschi,  iv.  17.  *  Ibid.  pass. 


234  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

occupations,  and  obstructed  the  completion  of  many  plans, 
which,  in  a  reign  of  more  than  thirty  years,  might  otherwise 
have  been  accomplished.  After  his  father's  death,  Manfredi, 
the  natural  son  of  Frederic,  showed  the  same  taste  for  learn- 
ing, and  became  its  ardent  protector.  On  appointing  an 
able  professor  to  the  schools  of  Naples,  which  had  been 
founded  by  the  late  king,  he  observed,  that  in  his  dominions, 
which  were  possessed  of  so  many  decorations,  it  was  his 
wish  that  the  liberal  arts  should  flourish,  and  that  his  people, 
whom  nature  had  endowed  with  the  richest  talents,  should 
be  provided  with  all  the  means  of  instruction.1 

While  the  literary  improvement  of  Italy  thus  occupied  the 
attention  of  its  native  princes,  and  whilst  by  their  means,  and 
by  the  taste  which  was  arising  among  the  independent  cities 
of  Lombardy,  the  Italian  language  was  daily  compressed  into 
strength,  softened  into  harmony,  or  polished  into  elegance,  the 
same  object  continued  to  interest  the  zeal  of  the  bishops  of  the 
Roman  see,  who  were  now  in  possession  of  wealth,  of  territory, 
and  of  an  unbounded  influence.  Ecclesiastical  science,  how- 
ever, was  with  them  the  principal  concern.  Since  the  year 
1198,  the  papal  chair  had  been  occupied  by  Innocent  III. 
who  seems  to  have  inherited  the  spirit  of  Hildebrand  without 
diminution  or  alloy.  He  had  studied  first  at  Rome,  then  at 
Bologna,  and  at  Paris;  whence  he  returned  profoundly  im- 
bued with  human  science,  and  rich  in  ecclesiastical  lore.  His 
understanding  was  acute,  his  memory  retentive;  and  whether 
he  spoke  in  the  vulgar  tongue  or  in  that  of  the  learned,  his 
eloquence  commanded  equal  attention.  He  had  composed 
sundry  works  before  his  pontificate;  after  his  accession  to  the 
chair  his  sermons  and  decretal  epistles  marked  him  for  one  of 
the  most  learned  prelates  whom  the  Roman  see  had  possessed. 
His  great  excellence  consisted  in  legal,  that  is,  canonical 
knowledge.  This  appeared  in  the  consistorial  meetings  which 
were  regularly  held,  and  at  which  he  presided  and  delivered 
his  sentiments.  We  are  told  that  the  learned  repaired  to  Rome 
to  hear  him:  causes  from  all  quarters  were  referred  to  his 
tribunal;  and  his  decisions  were  received  as  the  oracles  of 
truth.2 

1  Storia  della  Letter.  Ital.  iv.  33. 

2  Vita  Inn.  iii.  Scrip.  Rer.  Ital.  iii.     [M.  Dutheil  has  published  a  volume 
of  his  Latin  letters.] 


1200.]  POPE  INNOCENT  III.  235 

The  effects  of  such  an  example  must  necessarily  have  been 
great:  but  Innocent  united  it  with  the  influence  of  rewards, 
and  the  obligation  of  legal  ordinances.  We  read  of  the  pri- 
vileges which  he  granted  to  the  schools  of  Bologna  and  Paris; 
and  tlie  acts  of  the  fourth  Lateran  synod  exhibit  the  laws 
which  he  revived  or  enacted,  by  which  the  candidates  for  the 
sacred  ministry  might  be  provided  with  proper  means  of  in- 
struction, the  dense  shades  of  general  ignorance  be  more 
effectually  dispelled,  and  new  lustre  be  acquired  by  the 
church,  of  which  he  was  the  head.1  I  have  shown  the  fair 
side  of  Innocent,  others  may  delineate  his  other  qualities  and 
characteristics. 

The  measures  of  Innocent  for  the  promotion  of  science, 
were  followed  by  succeeding  pontiffs ;  and  it  would  have  been 
well  if  these  alone  had  been  pursued.  But  they  also  took  up 
his  views  of  ambition,  which  involved  them  in  contests;  and 
thus  averting  their  thoughts  from  objects  which,  in  our  estima- 
tion, are  alone  compatible  with  the  office  of  first  pastors  of  the 
church,  they  often  impeded  the  accomplishment  of  the  best 
concerted  plans.  Had  the  Roman  bishops — if  possessed  only 
of  half  the  wealth  which  was  voluntarily  bestowed,  of  half 
the  territories,  and  of  half  the  influence  which  they  actually 
enjoyed — directed  these  most  limited  means  to  the  cultivation 
of  science,  and  to  the  moral  improvement  of  the  Christian 
world,  leaving  the  civil  concerns  of  states  in  the  hands  of  those 
to  whom  they  more  properly  pertained,  the  people  of  Europe, 
and  particularly  those  of  Italy,  would  never  have  degenerated 
so  far  below  the  standard  of  their  ancestors.  Their  mental 
powers,  not  permitted  to  become  torpid  by  inaction,  would 
have  preserved  an  honourable  distinction;  literature  and  the 
arts,  encouraged  by  example,  and  patronised  by  rewards, 
would  not  have  experienced  the  extreme  of  degradation  to 
which  they  were  reduced;  and,  in  short,  the  dark  ages  would 
not  have  formed  such  a  long  and  dreary  chasm  of  ignorance 
and  barbarism  in  the  annals  of  man. 

The  station  which  those  bishops  occupied  was  singularly 
propitious  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  good  work  which  I 
have  mentioned.  They  resided  in  the  capital  of  the  ancient 
world,  and  were  heirs  of  the  imposing  ascendency  which  it 
conferred;  they  were  surrounded  by  the  relics  of  literature 

1  Odor.  KuynalJus  (Jontiu.  Annal.  Baron,  passim. 


236  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

and  the  monuments  of  art.  To  watch  over  the  moral  state  of 
man,  to  provide  means  of  instruction,  to  correct  abuses,  to 
encourage  the  growth  of  virtue,  in  one  Avord,  to  take  care  that 
the  Christian  republic  received  no  injury  in  all  its  sacred 
relations  to  a  future  state,  were  the  high  duties  of  their  office. 
The  cares  which  are  necessarily  inherent  in  temporal  command, 
and  the  provisions  of  family,  were  placed  beyond  the  boun- 
dary of  their  interests.  The  patrimonies  of  Peter  were 
abundant,  and  having  no  heirs  for  whom  to  provide,  they  had 
no  more  than  an  interest  for  life.  Possessed  of  a  general 
superintendence  over  all  orders  of  churchmen,  and  particularly 
over  the  monastic  institutions,  they  maintained  an  intercourse 
with  all  countries,  and  were  by  this  means  well  apprised  of 
the  characters,  the  conduct,  and  the  endowments  of  the  minis- 
ters of  religion,  whom  they  could  themselves  employ,  as 
circumstances  might  best  direct,  or  recommend  to  the  employ- 
ment of  others. 

All  this,  and  more  than  this,  the  circumstances  of  the 
Roman  bishops  enabled  them  to  perform.  Why,  then,  was 
so  little  done?  Not  only  was  learning  neglected,  and  the 
darkness  in  which  we  had  so  long  walked  covered  the  Eu- 
ropean world,  while  they  were  possessed  of  the  powerful 
instruments  of  counteraction  which  I  have  described,  but  I 
fear  it  may  be  said  that  the  obscurity  became  more  intense, 
as  their  means  of  dispersing  it  were  rendered  more  abundant. 
They  were  seldom  wanting  in  talents,  and  in  acquirements 
they  were  seldom  deficient.  In  truth,  the  election  to  the 
tiara  generally  fell  on  the  ablest  men;  and  they  had  at  their 
command,  fitted  for  employment  at  home  or  embassies  abroad, 
ecclesiastics  who  were  inferior  in  ability  only  to  themselves. 
I  will  not  be  so  unequitable  as  to  insinuate,  that  as  preten- 
sions which  are  not  founded  on  right  are  most  readily  esta- 
bli^hed  in  a  state  of  ignorance — the  prelates  of  whom  I  am 
speaking,  were  therefore  not  anxious  that  the  minds  of  men 
should  be  enlightened  by  the  torch  of  science.  That  their 
prerogative  gained  much  by  the  ignorance  of  the  times,  will 
be  denied  only  by  those  who  have  not  read  the  history  of  the 
times;  or  who  know  not  what  is  meant  by  the  donation  of 
Constantine,  and  the  collection  of  spurious  decretals.  Still, 
let  us  not  wantonly  impute  disgraceful  motives  where  other 
motives  may  be  discovered.  The  pontiffs  partook  of  the 
common  lot  of  human  kind;  were  themselves  ignorant, 


1200.]  POPE  BONIFACE  VIII.  237 

though  in  a  less  degree  than  their  contemporaries,  and  want- 
ing critical  discernment,  but  possessed  of  worldly  prudence, 
they  embraced  with  little  scrupulosity  the  advantages  that 
were  offered  to  their  acceptance.  But  at  the  moment  of  this 
acceptance,  and  indebted  as  they  certainly  were  for  power 
and  unbounded  influence  to  the  gross  ignorance  of  the  times, 
they  ceased  not,  in  their  discourses  and  in  their  writings,  to 
lament  the  evil  to  which  they  owed  their  aggrandizement,  and 
to  devise  means  for  the  improvement  of  the  Christian  world. 
In  the  progress  of  this  inquiry  I  have  often  related  the  ex- 
pedients to  which  they  resorted  for  this  purpose. 

I  am  aware  that  I  have  yet  given  no  direct  answer  to  the 
question — Why  the  Roman  bishops  performed  so  little,  ifr 
from  their  station,  their  talents,  and  their  habits  of  life,  they 
had  so  much  in  their  power?  The  history  of  their  pontificates 
will  best  solve  the  difficulty.  And  here  I  would  not  refer  the 
reader  to  any  distant  period — though,  in  the  progress  of  any 
period,  sufficient  light  might  be  collected — but  confine  his  view 
to  that  which  is  more  immediately  before  him;  I  mean,  to  the 
thirteenth  century.  At  the  commencement  of  this  century, 
Innocent  III.  occupied  the  papal  chair,  and  Boniface  VIII. 
at  its  termination.  In  perusing  the  history  of  the  lives  of 
these  prelates,  he  will  discover,  that  though  they  were  men  of 
high  endowments,  and  not  indifferent  to  the  cause  of  letters, 
other  interests  were  nearer  to  their  hearts,  or  at  least  were  of 
such  overwhelming  magnitude  and  such  urgent  importance  as 
necessarily  to  absorb  the  main  powers  of  attention.  To  ac- 
quire territory,  and  through  it  the  more  effectual  means  of 
agirrandisement;  to  extend  the  prerogative,  and  by  its  appli- 
cation, as  occasions  served,  to  exercise  an  unlimited  control 
over  churchmen;  and  to  make  even  crowns  bend  to  the  sove- 
reignty of  the  tiara,  were  concerns  compared  with  which 
those  of  literature  would  appear  but  as  trifles  light  as  air. 
That  such  were  the  views  of  Innocent  was  manifested  by  the 
series  of  his  actions,  though  I  have  sufficiently  remarked, 
that  his  time  was  often  otherwise  engaged. 

AVlien,  after  a  hundred  years,  seldom  distinguished  by  any 
change  of  measures,  Boniface  was  called  to  the  helm,  a  papal 
historian1  thus  sums  up  the  events  of  his  pontificate:  casting 
his  eye,  says  he,  over  the  face  of  Christendom,  end  embrac- 

1  Rayuald.  Ann.  an.  1^04,  i. 


238  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

ing  its  concerns,  he  undertook  to  pacify  Italy;  to  recal  the 
Sicilian  kingdom  to  its  duty;  to  confederate  Spain  with 
Gaul;  to  compel  to  terms  of  peace  Philip  of  France  and  the 
English  Edward;  to  deter  Adolphus,  lately  raised  to  the 
German  throne,  from  the  invasion  of  Gaul;  to  unite  in  the 
bonds  of  friendship  the  Christian  commonwealth,  which,  as  if 
the  Saracens  sufficed  not  to  effect  its  ruin,  seemed  intent  on 
its  own  destruction;  to  reduce,  by  an  armed  association,  the 
Greek  schismatics  to  obedience  to  the  Roman  church;  and 
again  to  rescue  the  Holy  Land  from  the  hands  of  unbe- 
lievers. 

Such  were  the  designs  of  Boniface,  in  few  of  which  he  suc- 
ceeded; but  every  attempt,  as  it  had  happened  to  Innocent, 
involved  him  in  difficulties  and  contests.  The  princes  who 
opposed  their  views  were  rendered  only  more  untractable  by 
menaces  and  anathemas;  schemes  of  moral  or  intellectual 
improvement,  which,  however  wisely  projected,  can  be  accom- 
plished only  in  repose,  were  entirely  frustrated,  or  expe- 
rienced a  very  partial  success.  Those  who,  by  a  proper 
application  of  their  influence,  might  have  renovated  the  state 
of  man,  or  have  retarded  his  intellectual  decline,  left  him 
plunged  in  the  abyss  of  ignorance  and  superstition.  The 
circumstances  which  attended  their  deaths  were  peculiarly 
awful,  and  what  has  been  said  of  one  may  be  said  of  both, 
that  they  died  "  beloved  by  few,  hated  by  many,  and  feared 
by  all."  It  can  no  longer  be  a  question  why  so  little  was 
done  by  them.1 

Amongst  their  works,  and  those  of  contemporary  princes,  I 
mentioned  the  foundation  of  schools  or  academies,  on  which 
I  may  further  observe,  that  these  places  now  acquired  the 
more  dignified  name  of  universities.  Hitherto  the  public 
studies  had  been  limited  to  certain  branches  of  learning;  but 
as  the  views  or  desires  of  men  were  enlarged,  the  whole  circle 
of  sciences,  as  far  as  the  allotted  period  of  time  would  allow, 
did  not  appear  to  be  an  object  beyond  the  comprehension  of 
youthful  minds.  Schools  then,  which  professed  to  embrace 
all  the  sciences  within  their  walls,  and  to  appoint  masters  to 
each,  were  properly  denominated  universities,  of  which  Paris, 
about  the  year  1215,  is  said  to  have  set  the  example.  This 

1  He  that  is  curious  to  peruse  the  history  of  these  pontiffs,  may  consult 
Kaynald.  Annal.  Fleury,  xviii.  xix.  Muratori,  Annal.  d'ltal.  iii,  Eer.  Ital. 


1200.]  PROGRESS  OF  UNIVERSITIES.  239 

was  soon  followed  in  other  countries,  and  particularly  in 
Italy,  where  almost  every  city,  owing  to  the  beneficence  of 
princes  or  of  pontiffs,  was  honoured  with  the  distinctive  title.1 
To  this  title  privileges  were  annexed,  by  which  the  students 
and  professors  acquired  distinction,  and  were  formed  into  a 
graduated  society. 

We  cannot  doubt  but  that  learning  was  advanced,  as  the 
means  of  instruction  were  thus  multiplied,  and  as  men  of 
talents  could  readily  find  a  theatre  on  which  fame  and  an 
honourable  maintenance  might  be  acquired.  But  the  studies 
to  which  most  attention  was  paid  were  not  those  of  polite 
literature.  A  taste  for  these  was  still  wanting,  or,  what 
amounts  to  the  same,  that  fostering  encouragement  was  with- 
held which  is  afforded  only  in  the  more  advanced  stages  of 
society.  The  civil  and  canon  law,  theology,  and  the  more 
abstruse  philosophical  researches  were  ardently  followed:  the 
two  first,  because  they  constituted  the  sure  path  to  preferment, 
while  the  metaphysical  sophist  never  failed  to  acquire  celebrity 
and  applause  in  the  field  of  disputation.  Where  the  ablest 
professors  taught,  as  we  saw  in  the  case  of  Peter  Abailard 
and  others,  young  men  still  continued  to  despise  the  hardships 
of  long  and  expensive  journeys  in  order  to  become  their 
hearers;  and  we  read  on  many  lists  the  names  of  our  own 
countrymen.  Among  these,  not  a  few  became  themselves 
teachers  even  in  the  schools  of  Italy,  for  as  Latin  was  their 
common  language,  every  man  of  talents  might  aspire  to  the 
vacant  chairs.  In  reading  the  annals  of  these  times,  it  was 
often  with  a  feeling  of  concern  I  noticed,  that  when  a  city 
by  any  particular  proceeding  had  given  offence  to  its  political 
head,  emperor  or  king,  or  had  irritated  a  Roman  bishop  by 
opposition — the  usual  punishment,  by  command  or  interdict, 
was  to  inhibit  its  professors  from  teaching,  and  to  disperse  its 
scholars;  and  this  at  a  time  when  the  ignorance  and  bar- 
barism of  the  age  were  the  topics  of  complaint,  for  the 
removal  of  which  the  schools  themselves  had  been  esta- 
blished. 

Schools,  then,  and  professors,  there  were  in  abundance,  and 

'  as  far  as  oral  instructions,  otherwise  termed  lectures,  could 

prevail,  there  were  ample  means  of  education;  but  books 

were  still  scarce,  and  without  their  aid  the  memory  would 

1  See  TiraboscLi,  iv.  :}.     Also,  Meusel's  Leitfaden,  077 — 82. 


240  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

soon  prove  a  treacherous  repository.  The  work  of  transcrip- 
tion was  necessarily  slow,  laborious  and  expensive,  while  the 
Stationarii,  as  they  were  called,  that  is,  men  who  trafficked 
in  books,  made  large  fortunes  by  lending  them  out  to  be  read 
at  exorbitant  prices,  not  in  volumes,  but  in  detached  parts, 
according  to  the  estimation  in  which  the  author  was  held. 
The  monks,  it  is  said,  laboured,  but  their  copies  were  inclosed 
in  the  cloister;  and  what  was  executed  by  hired  artists  in 
the  universities,  could  satisfy  the  demands  only  of  few. 
No  increase  of  libraries  was  to  be  expected.  To  have  at- 
tempted to  amass  volumes  when  so  many  of  an  ancient  date 
had  perished,  and  the  modern  supply  was  so  inadequate, 
must  have  proved  an  useless  undertaking. 

Anxious  as  I  am  to  trace  the  rise  and  progress  of  every 
cause  which  may  be  presumed  to  have  contributed  towards 
the  revival  of  letters,  I  shall  be  allowed,  I  trust,  from  what 
has  been  said,  and  what  will  hereafter  be  detailed,  to  leave 
unregarded  the  expeditions  or  crusades  to  the  east,  which 
were  so  frequent  in  this  century.  Three  had  been  achieved 
when  the  century  began,  and  six  more  succeeded  in  its 
course,  of  which  the  last  was  the  second  fatal  attempt  of  the 
French  monarch,  Louis  IX.  With  this  the  phrenzy  ceased. 
Dangers  and  difficulties,  calamities  and  disorders,  and  the 
enormous  waste  of  blood  and  treasure,  which  hitherto  had 
been  despised  as  of  no  moment,  became  at  last  objects  of 
more  cool  calculation,  by  which  improvident  zeal  was  abated 
and  inconsiderate  enterprise  repressed.  The  feeble  remains 
of  the  Latin  establishments  in  the  east  then  rapidly  declined, 
and  were  utterly  overthrown  before  the  expiration  of  the 
century. 

Modern  visionaries  do  not  hesitate  to  assert,  that  the  cru- 
sades were  a  source  of  many  benefits;  and  they  reason  as  if 
they  knew  that  a  body  of  scientific  men — such  as  was  ap- 
pended to  a  late  memorable  expedition  to  Egypt — intelligent, 
observant,  and  competent  to  the  deepest  researches,  had  ac- 
companied the  armies.  One  advantage,  I  am  not  unwilling 
to  allow,  though  that  is  problematical,  may  have  accrued  to 
literature  from  the  nine  crusades ;  and  that  is,  the  acquire- 
ment of  certain  Eastern  tales,  by  which  the  stock  in  trade  of 
the  Trouveurs  and  Troubadours  is  thought  to  have  been 
marvellously  enriched.1 

1  See  Hist,  of  Eng.  Poet.  iii. 


1200.]  MONASTIC  ORDERS.  241 

At  this  time  Italy,  and  soon  afterwards  other  countries, 
were  admitted  to  the  participation  of  a  widely  different  be- 
nefit, by  which  the  progress  of  letters  really  received  an 
additional  impulse.  When  the  primitive  vigour  of  the  early 
established  monastic  societies  had  declined,  I  remarked  that 
the  institution  of  new  orders,  particularly  of  that  of  Citeaux, 
by  generating  a  new  devotional  energy,  gave  a  renewed  ardour 
to  the  practices  of  piety,  and  as  far  as  they  were  prescribed, 
were  favourable  to  the  pursuits  of  science.  But  these  orders 
also  soon  degenerated,  from  the  operation  of  the  same  causes; 
and  it  became  necessary,  for  the  due  support  of  the  religious 
character,  and  more  effectually  to  silence  the  clamour  of 
many  enemies,  to  form  establishments  which,  by  the  austerity 
of  their  manners,  their  contempt  of  riches,  and  the  gravity 
and  sanctity  of  their  external  deportment  and  maxims,  might 
ensure  success  to  a  design  of  such  importance.  The  century 
is  remarkable  for  the  number  and  variety  of  the  new  mo- 
nastic establishments' — which  shows  that  the  spirit  of  man 
was  labouring  for  expansion — but  I  shall  pass  by  them  in 
order  to  come  to  the  two  mendicant  orders  of  Saints  Francis 
and  Dominic.  These  were  formed  on  the  plan  which  I  have 
just  delineated,  and  wonderful  is  the  admiration  which  they 
soon  excited.  Their  founders,  indeed,  were  men  of  uncommon 
piety;  simple  in  their  language,  gentle  in  their  manners, 
patient  of  insults,  forgiving  injuries,  and  contemning  wealth. 
The  children  of  Dominic  were  less  austere  in  their  practices 
than  those  of  Francis,  to  whom  it  was  enjoined  that  they 
should  consider  themselves  as  pilgrims  and  strangers  in  the 
world;  should  possess  no  property  in  lands,  nor  any  endow- 
ments in  houses;  should  support  themselves  by  the  free  con- 
tributions of  the  faithful;  but  should,  on  no  occasion,  receive 
money.  The  extraordinary  code,  of  laws  to  which  these 
men  submitted  is  pervaded  by  a  wonderful  spirit  of  humility, 
of  submission  to  a  ruling  Providence,  of  good-will  to  mankind, 
which  is  tinctured  by  no  views  of  party,  no  self-interest,  no 
human  policy.  A  society  of  philosophers  was  seen  to  arise 
in  the  Christian  commonwealth,  who  by  an  easy  effort  could 
practise  the  sublime  lessons  which  the  sages  of  Greece  had 
boastingly  delivered  to  their  followers.  What  an  ancient  poet 
said  of  Zeno,  the  father  of  the  Stoic  school,  esurire  docet,  et 

1  See  Helyot,  Hist,  des  Ordres,  vi. 


242  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

invenit  discipulos,  might  with  more  propriety  be  applied  to 
Francis,  the  holy  citizen  of  Assisium.  Assisium  is  a  town  of 
Umbria. 

St.  Dominic  was  a  Spaniard,  of  the  illustrious  house  of 
Guzman,  and  born  in  the  diocese  of  Osma.  He  studied  in 
the  new  schools  of  Palencia,  displayed  talents,  and  became 
well  skilled  in  the  controversies  of  the  times.  He  was  distin- 
guished by  his  zeal  for  the  orthodox  faith;  and  we  first  read  of 
him  in  the  missions  of  Languedoc,  warring  in  company 
with  his  bishop  against  the  Albigenses.  Moderate  men, 
however,  hoped  that  his  gentle  manners  and  characteristic 
benevolence  would  moderate  the  too  ardent  propensities  of 
zeal.  The  tribunal  known  by  the  name  of  Inquisition  had 
already  been  established;  but  under  the  guidance  of  Dominic 
it  afterwards  took  a  more  regular  form.  From  this  incident, 
which  in  a  more  distant  view  at  least  augured  no  benefit  to 
literature,  it  may  perhaps  be  thought  that  I  have  unadvisedly 
connected  with  it  the  name  of  Dominic. 

The  first  years  of  the  thirteenth  century  witnessed  the  rise 
of  both  orders.  Both  the  founders  visited  Rome;  and  we 
may  be  permitted  to  conjecture  what  were  the  looks  and 
the  reflections  of  the  ^high-minded  Innocent  III.  when  the 
lowly  Francis — presenting  himself  before  him  with  the  rules 
which  he  had  drawn  up,  modelled  on  the  letter  of  the  gospel 
maxims — explained  his  views,  and  implored  the  sanction  of 
his  authority.  The  pontiff  hesitated;  made  some  objections 
to  the  practicability  of  the  plan;  but  finally  yielded  his  assent. 
Nor  can  we  doubt  but  that  he  had  sagacity  to  foresee  that 
such  societies,  while  they  laboured  to  reform  a  vicious  age, 
must,  if  duly  encouraged,  prove  able  auxiliaries  in  every  at- 
tempt to  enforce  just  obedience,  or  even  to  extend  the  boun- 
daries of  the  Roman  prerogative. 

Europe,  in  all  its  regions,  was  soon  in  possession  of  colonies 
drafted  from  these  establishments,  from  whom  the  most  active 
exertions  might  be  expected;  on  which,  combined  with  an 
unblemished  name,  their  existence  was  at  stake.  Other 
monastic  orders,  when  they  had  sustained  the  first  years  of 
difficulty  and  hardship,  and  had  acquired  wealth,  were  no 
longer  dependent  upon  precarious  aid.  The  mendicant  friars 
left  the  day  to  provide  for  itself;  and,  like  the  birds  of  the 
air,  neither  sowed,  reaped,  nor  gathered  into  barns.  That 
two  institutes  of  this  description  should  everywhere  have  been 


1200.]       EFFECTS  OF  THE  MONASTIC  ORDERS.          243 

embraced  with  ardour,  have  risen  rapidly  to  celebrity  and 
importance,  and  have  commanded  universal  veneration,  -will 
not  appear  extraordinary  to  those  who  have  observed  the 
mighty  operation  on  the  human  mind  of  anything  uncommon, 
particularly  when  stimulated  by  the  warm  impulses  of  devo- 
tional sentiment  in  an  age  of  ignorance  and  superstition. 
They  soon  acquired  an  unbounded  influence ;  filled  the  highest 
posts;  taught  in  many  universities;  became  the  animating 
soul  of  the  hierarchy;  and  even  on  many  occasions  entered 
into  the  cabinets  of  princes,  and  presided  over  the  interests 
of  nations.  The  Roman  bishops,  sensible  of  their  utility, 
heaped  favours  on  them;  and  sometimes  it  is  thought  in- 
creased to  a  mischievous  extent  their  privileges  and  exemp- 
tions. 

But  in  what  did  they  benefit  the  cause  of  literature? 
Francis  himself  was  utterly  void  of  learning:  and  aware  of 
its  too  frequent  incompatibility  with  sentiments  of  self-abase- 
ment, he  did  not  wish  that  his  followers  should  indulge  a 
taste  for  human  science.  They  were  directed,  however,  to 
travel  wherever  their  presence  could  do  good;  to  converse  with 
persons  of  all  ranks;  to  instruct  the  young;  and  to  exhort 
the  multitude.  The  Dominicans,  because  public  instruction 
was  the  main  end  of  their  institution,  even  acquired  the 
appellation  of  preaching  friars.  And  had  they  attempted  no 
more  than  this,  they  would  have  done  much,  not  only  in  a 
moral  light,  but  in  reference  to  general  improvement.  Awed 
by  their  external  gravity  of  deportment,  the  people  listened 
to  their  admonitions,  and  insensibly  acquired  habits  of  reflec- 
tion. Their  manners  were  humanized,  and  their  minds  en- 
larged. The  preachers  addressed  them  in  the  vernacular 
tongue.  This  tongue,  therefore,  by  exercise,  and  more  by 
becoming  the  vehicle  of  new  combinations  of  ideas,  acquired 
fluency  and  copiousness.  One  of  the  early  disciples  of 
Francis,  brother  Pacificus,  had  been  a  celebrated  Trouveur, 
who,  from  having  learned  how  to  engage  attention,  would 
now  lead  it  to  objects  of  higher  importance  and  more  calcu- 
lated to  promote  intellectual  improvement.  In  one  word,  it 
seems  to  me  that,  taking  society  in  the  state  in  which  it  was, 
ignorant  from  long  neglect,  and  vitiated  from  the  operation 
of  many  causes,  but  with  a  strong  thirst  for  knowledge  and 
propensity  for  improvement — no  better  means  for  the  pro- 
motion of  this  end  could  have  been  devised  than  what  the 

R2 


244  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

friars  practised.  They  lived  as  it  were  with  the  people,  of 
whom  they  formed  a  part;  but  retiring  occasionally  from 
their  view,  and  again  appearing  with  an  air  of  increased 
gravity,  they  made  their  way  more  effectually  to  the  heart, 
and,  fixing  the  principles  of  virtue  in  many  minds,  prepared 
the  soil  for  the  reception  of  every  species  of  intellectual  im- 
provement.1 

Though  I  said  that  the  humble  Francis  was  void  of  all 
learning,  I  should  have  added  that  he  had  some  turn  for 
poetry,  and  composed  in  the  vulgar  tongue  of  Italy.  The 
subject,  we  cannot  doubt,  was  moral;  and  it  is  not  proved 
that  he  was  net,  in  point  of  time,  the  first  poet  of  his  country. 
He  had  visited  France  in  the  capacity  of  a  merchant;  had 
listened  to  the  songs  of  the  Troubadours;  had  witnessed  their 
effects  on  the  public  mind;  and  returned  home  prepossessed 
in  their  favour  and  in  that  of  the  French  people.  Hence  it 
is  said  he  acquired  among  his  countrymen  the  name  of 
Francis.  That  he  himself  should  afterwards  have  become  a 
versifier,  but  from  motives  more  pure  and  on  subjects  more 
edifying,  was  natural. 

Should  it  be  insisted,  that  the  first  members  of  these  socie- 
ties were  illiterate,  it  must  also  be  admitted  that  this  ceased 
to  be  the  character  of  their  immediate  successors.  The  spirit 
of  rivalry  between  them  and  the  orders  of  the  old  establish- 
ment, clerical  and  monastic,  would  soon  urge  them  to  vigorous 
exertion;  the  possession  of  the  good- will  of  the  multitude, 
and  the  consciousness  of  an  ascendency  gained  by  the  force 
of  natural  eloquence,  would  prompt  them  to  employ  the  means 
by  which  that  possession  might  be  secured  and  that  ascend- 
ency be  increased.  They  well  knew  that  the  study  of  the 
best  models,  particularly  of  the  ancient  fathers,  could  alone 
supply  those  means,  and  to  them  they  would  not  fail  to  have 
recourse.  In  fine,  the  desire  of  excellence  and  of  honest 
fame,  which  perhaps  is  never  extinguished  in  any  bosom, 
would  suggest  that  the  paths  of  science  which  had  led  other 
men  to  renown  were  equally  open  to  the  children  of  Dominic 
and  Francis.  And  we  shall  soon  see,  that  from  this  family 
issued  the  most  celebrated  scholars  of  the  age. 

Whilst  other  countries  received  the  first  visits  of  these 

1  On  tbe  rise  and  early  progress  of  these  mendicant  orders,  consult  any 
ecclesiastical  writers,  particularly  Helyot,  Hist,  dvs  Ordres  Monast.  \i. 


1200.]  EFFECTS  OF  THE  MONASTIC  ORDERS.  245 

zealous  men,  England  was  not  deprived  of  their  exertions. 
In*  1221,  the  Dominicans,  whom  our  countrymen,  from  the 
colour  of  their  upper  garment,  called  Black  Friars,  landed  in 
this  country;  and  within  three  years  they  were  followed  by 
the  Franciscans,  or  Grey  Friars.  It  is  also  worthy  of  remark 
— because  it  shows  that  the  acquirement  of  science  was 
already  in  their  view — that  the  university  of  Oxford  became 
their  favourite  station,  where  they  were  kindly  received,  and 
where  they  soon  opened  their  schools.  Speaking  of  the 
Dominicans,  the  Oxford  historian  says:1  "  In  a  short  time 
many  of  them  became  eminent  in  the  walks  of  theology  and 
philosophy." 

The  Franciscans  in  the  meantime  made  a  rapid  progress, 
collecting  new  members  to  their  fraternity  from  all  sides. 
They  secured  the  public  favour  by  their  irreproachable  lives, 
and  obtained  establishments  in  the  principal  cities.  They 
enjoyed  great  celebrity  at  Oxford;  and  as  the  confined  limits 
of  their  first  dwelling  could  not  contain  the  multitudes  that 
flocked  to  them,  the  benevolence  of  wealthy  friends  enabled 
them  to  commence  a  more  spacious  edifice,  during  the  con- 
struction of  which  men  of  science  and  of  birth  were  seen2 
"  bearing  stones  and  mortar  on  their  shoulders." 

Robert  Grosteste,  afterwards  bishop  of  Lincoln,  taught  at 
Oxford  at  this  time  with  great  celebrity;  and  being  an 
admirer  of  this  new  colony  of  friars,  he  was  easily  induced  to 
read  lectures  in  their  school.  The  scholasticism  which  I 
have  described  was  still  in  vogue,  and  there  was  a  great 
confluence  of  auditors.  The  superior,  who  was  himself  void 
of  learning,  but  who  gloried  in  the  talents  of  his  professor, 
was  anxious  to  ascertain  if  possible  what  progress  the 
scholars  had  made,  and  he  accordingly  entered  the  school 
one  day  as  they  were  rehearsing  their  questions,  when  he 
found  to  his  astonishment  that  the  subject  before  them  was 
—  IVliethcr  there  be  a  God?  "Alas,  alas!"  exclaimed  the 
good  man,  "ignorant  simplicity  is  daily  gaining  Heaven; 
while  these  learned  disputants  are  arguing  about  the  existence 
of  Heaven's  Master."  After  this  he  became  solicitous  to  turn 
their  minds  to  what  he  had  been  told  to  believe  were  more 
substantial  studies;  and  for  this  purpose  he  procured  from 
Rome  improved  copies  of  the  Decretals. 

1  Hist,  et  Antiq.  Univer.  Oxou.  G-1.  4  Ibid.  70. 


246  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

After  the  reluctant  departure  of  Grosteste,  other  learned 
doctors  continued  to  lecture  in  the  Franciscan  schools;  out 
of  which,  as  records  state,  proceeded  men  of  deep  erudition, 
who  did  honour  to  Oxford,  to  the  nation,  and  to  foreign 
universities,  by  their  theological  and  philosophical  profi- 
ciency.1 On  the  death  of  Grosteste,  who  had  ever  shown  a 
peculiar  attachment  to  the  two  mendicant  orders,  he  be- 
queathed his  own  works,  if  not  all  his  books,  written  mostly 
with  his  own  hand,  to  the  Franciscans  of  Oxford.  Indeed 
these  men  are  said  to  have  been  active  in  collecting  whatever 
was  excellent  or  rare  in  literature,  and  so  abundant  were  their 
means  of  doing  it,  that  copious  libraries  were  formed  in  all 
their  convents;  whilst  the  secular  clergy  and  others,  ashamed, 
as  may  be  presumed,  of  their  remissness,  made  the  laudable 
measure  a  serious  subject  of  complaint.2  They  objected  that 
"  from  the  want  of  means  of  acquiring  learning,  the  whole 
clerical  order  must  be  absorbed  in  these  friars." 

As  yet  neither  Oxford  nor  Cambridge  had  any  endowed 
foundations,  afterwards  called  colleges,  unless  it  may  be 
those  schools  in  the  former  place  said  to  have  been  founded 
by  Alfred,  which  were  much  neglected  at  this  period.  But 
before  the  close  of  the  century,  we  read  of  Baliol,  and  Mer- 
ton,  and  University,  the  latter  founded  indeed  by  Alfred, 
but  now  restored  and  more  richly  endowed.  Cambridge,  at 
the  same  time,  could  boast  only  of  Peter-house. 

The  advantages,  however,  which  Oxford  seemed  to  enjoy 
from  the  impulse  given  to  its  studies,  and  the  favour  shown 
to  the  new-comers,  were  soon  interrupted  by  jealousies  and 
dissensions,  which  the  conflict  of  opposite  interests  had  a 
strong  tendency  to  produce.  But  at  Paris,  where  the  same 
orders  had  been  received,  the  disputes  were  more  violent 
and  more  continued,  especially  between  the  Dominicans  and 
the  university.  They  may  be  seen  in  the  histories  of  the 
times;  for  it  is  no  part  of  my  province  to  describe  them,  or 
to  furnish  details  of  the  contests  among  the  mendicants  them- 
selves, or  the  intestine  divisions  of  the  Franciscans  concerning 
the  sense  of  their  founder's  rule. 

The  use  of  modern  languages,  the  compositions  of  the 
Troubadours  and  Trouveurs,  the  state  of  Italy,  the  patronage 
of  princes  and  of  some  pontiffs,  the  establishment  of  new 

1  See  the  history  just  quoted,  8  Ibid.  77. 


1200.]  THOMAS  AQUINAS.  247 

schools  or  universities,  and  the  foundation  of  new  monastic 
orders  which  I  have  mentioned,  were  the  principal  means  by 
which  an  increased  energy  appeared  to  be  given  to  the 
studies  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  the  public  mind  pre- 
pared for  a  more  comprehensive  improvement. 

Thomas  Aquinas1  was  amongst  the  first,  or  rather  was  him- 
self the  first  scholar  of  the  age  in  theology,  and  in  the  various 
branches  of  philosophy  as  they  were  then  taught.  He  was 
born  in  Italy  about  the  year  1225,  and  was  styled  in  the 
schools  the  Angelic  Doctor.  After  completing  Ms  first  studies 
he  entered  into  the  order  of  St.  Dominic,  went  to  Paris,  and 
thence  to  Cologne,  where  theology  was  taught  by  Albert  the 
Great,  a  member  of  the  same  order.  Under  him  was  laid 
the  foundation  of  his  future  fame.  After  this  we  read  of  him 
as  himself  theological  lecturer  in  the  various  convents  of 
his  order  at  Cologne,  and  at  Paris,  where  he  was  admitted  to 
the  degree  of  doctor:  and  then  in  Rome.  About  the  year 
1269  he  once  more  visited  the  French  capital,  where  his 
presence  was  ardently  desired;  he  then  returned  to  Rome, 
from  which  city,  at  the  request  of  the  Sicilian  king,  he  went 
to  Naples.  Here  his  lectures  closed.  Called  by  Gregory  X. 
to  assist  at  the  oecumenical  council  which  was  held  at  Lyons 
in  1274,  he  fell  sick  on  the  road  and  died,  before  he  had  com- 
pleted his  fiftieth  year. 

Aquinas  left  numerous  works;  and  though  it  is  plain,  from 
the  many  points  which  he  incidentally  discusses,  that  no  scien- 
tific subject  had  escaped  his  notice,  yet  he  had  directed  the 
mighty  powers  of  his  mind  principally  to  theology  in  all  its 
departments,  scriptural,  dogmatical,  and  moral.  He  wrote 
commentaries  on  the  Master  of  Sentences,  and  on  many  books 
of  Scripture;  a  collection  of  various  treatises  in  seventy -three 
numbers,  besides  other  works;  and  to  crown  the  whole,  his 
celebrated  Sum  of  Theology  divided  into  three  parts.  To 
tlic<e  we  may  add  his  Commentaries  on  the  books  of  Aristotle, 
who  was  then  generally  deemed  the  oracle  of  all  philosophical 
science.  I  have  remarked  how  imperfect  the  translations 
of  the  works  of  this  great  man  then  were;  but  I  have  seen 
it  somewhere  observed,  that  the  comments  of  Aquinas,  not- 
withstanding every  obstacle,  may  be  deemed  superior  to 

1  See  Jourdain's  Secln-n-hi's  xur  Ics  lrii<lncli<>us  Latincs  tFArixtote,  for 
sonic  interesting  uotices  of  Aquinas,  Roger  Bacon,  John  of  Salisbury,  Ade- 
lard  of  Bath,  Vincent  de  Beauvois,  Adam  de  1'Isle,  Xi-. 


248  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D>. 

those  of  the  Arabian  and  to  many  of  the  Greek  writers.  But 
with  respect  to  the  science  of  nature,  as  it  is  founded  on  ob- 
servation and  experiment,  it  was  equally  hidden  from  them  all. 

I  do  not  pretend  to  have  recently  studied  the  works  of 
Aquinas;  but  there  was  a  period  in  my  life  when  I  read 
many  of  them  with  attention;  and  the  following  was  the  im- 
pression which  the  perusal  left  upon  my  mind.  His  genius 
seemed  comprehensive  and  penetrating,  his  erudition  had 
passed  the  boundaries  within  which  the  learning  of  the  age 
was  confined.  His  questions  were  drawn  from  an  accurate 
survey  and  a  luminous  division  of  the  several  subjects.  His 
manner  of  reasoning  was  closely  argumentative;  his  conclu- 
sions were  deduced  from  evidence,  and  guided  by  the  received 
rules  of  the  syllogistic  art,  and  the  whole  enforced  and  illus- 
trated by  texts  of  Scripture,  by  passages  from  the  ancient 
fathers,  and  as  often  as  there  was  opportunity  by  the  supposed 
opinions  of  the  Stagyrite.  It  is  plain  that  I  allude  princi- 
pally to  the  Sum  of  Theology.  But  in  this  Sum  are  many 
tilings  which  must  appear  trifling,  or  rather  the  offspring  of 
a  mind  ranging  without  control  through  the  ideal  world 
of  metaphysical  abstractions  and  fanciful  chimeras.  This, 
however,  was  scholasticism,  from  the  magic  influence  of 
which  no  talents  could  at  that  time  be  expected  to  be 
exempt,  as  it  constituted  the  field  on  which  alone  they 
could  be  exhibited  with  applause.  The  terms  also  which 
were  then  used,  though  obscure  to  our  perceptions  and 
dissonant  to  our  ears,  were  the  familiar  technicalities  of  the 
art,  to  which  the  whole  reasoning  process  was  at  that  period 
attached. 

The  language  of  Aquinas,  which  is  always  perspicuous  and 
precise,  occasionally  approaches,  where  the  subject  will  allow 
it,  to  the  confines  of  elegance;  and  hence  we  feel  the  more 
impelled  to  lament  that  a  mind  of  such  superior  powers  had 
not  received  a  better  direction,  or  a  different  culture;  and 
that  his  judgment  had  not  been  matured  and  his  taste  refined 
by  an  early  intimacy  with  the  great  authors  of  Greece  and 
Rome.  But  this  is,  in  fact,  only  to  regret  that  he  lived  in 
the  thirteenth  century.  "With  these  helps  I  do  not  think  it 
would  be  too  much  to  say,  that  Thomas  Aquinas  would  have 
known  no  superior,  even  in  a  much  later  period  than  that  in 
which  he  lived,  and  I  believe  no  equal.1 

1  See  Dupin,  Bib.   Eccles.   Brucker,  iii.     Tirabosclii,  iv.     Fabric.    Bib. 
Lat.  med.  astat.  iii. 


1200.]  ST.  BONAVENTURE.  249 

Contemporary  with  Aquinas  was  Bonaventure,  a  native 
also  of  Italy,  a  friar  of  the  Franciscan  order,  who  studied 
with  him,  who  flourished  in  the  university  of  Paris,  and  who 
died  in  the  same  year.  His  master  was  our  countryman, 
Alexander  Hales,  who  embraced  the  same  monastic  profession. 
The  pursuits  of  Bonaventure  were  the  same  as  those  of 
Aquinas  ;  and  he  was  second  to  him  only  in  talents,  by  the 
exercise  of  which,  and  more  by  the  eminent  virtues  which 
were  conspicuous  in  both,  he  acquired  the  reputation  of  a 
great  and  holy  man.  He  was  created  a  cardinal  by  Gre- 
gory X.,  and  raised  to  the  see  of  Albano  ;  and  having  accom- 
panied him  to  the  council  of  Lyons,  where  he  gave  signal 
proofs  of  his  extensive  learning,  he  died  in  that  city  before  its 
close.  His  works  are  principally  theological  and  ascetic. 
They  are  not  so  numerous  as  those  of  his  illustrious  contem- 
porary, nor  so  deeply  tinctured  with  philosophy;  but  written 
in  the  same  spirit  of  scholasticism,  where  scholasticism  could 
be  admitted,  and  with  the  same  ardour  for  the  propagation  of 
religious  truth  and  disinterested  virtue.1 

I  have  mentioned  Albertiis  Magnus  as  the  master  of 
Aquinas,  and  Alexander  Hales  as  the  master  of  Bonaventure; 
the  first,  a  German  and  a  Dominican;  the  second,  an  English- 
man and  a  Franciscan.  Of  Alexander  I  shall  only  say,  that 
he  taught  with  applause,  and  wrote  in  the  usual  style  on  the 
usual  subjects  of  the  schools.2  Albertus,  as  the  epithet  of 
Magnus  may  insinuate,  took  a  wider  range,  and  traversed  the 
intellectual,  the  theological,  the  moral,  and  the  physical  world. 
He  was  unwillingly  promoted  to  the  see  of  Eatisbon,  which 
he  relinquished  within  three  years,  when  he  returned  to  the 
repose  of  his  cell  and  to  the  exercises  of  public  teaching.  He 
died  in  1280,  leaving  works  behind  him  which  have  filled 
twenty-one  volumes  in  folio.3  Those  who  have  read  these 
works,  which  comprise  commentaries  from  Aristotle,  on  the 
Scriptures,  and  on  the  Master  of  Sentences,  sermons,  miscel- 
lanies, and  lucubrations  on  nature  in  her  productions  and 
phenomena,  have  asked  with  surprise,  What  could  have 
caused  him  to  receive  the  appellation  of  the  Great,  unless  it 
were  the  geometrical  bulk  of  his  labours  ?  But  in  this  re- 
spect we  judge  with  little  equity.  The  perusal  of  that  which, 

1  See  the  snmo  authors,  also  Cave,  Hist.  Lit. 

*  See  Leland,  de  Scrip.  Brit. 

1  Dupin,  Cave,  and  Bib.  Lnt.  metl.  tetat.  i. 


250  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

in  the  present  improved  state  of  human  knowledge,  is  calcu- 
lated to  excite  only  disgust,  was  then  heard  with  vivid  admi- 
ration, when  Albert  lectured  in  the  schools  of  Cologne  and  of 
other  German  cities.  I  will  besides  observe,  that  at  this 
time  every  eminent  teacher  acquired  some  distinctive  appella- 
tion, as  the  subtle,  the  irrefragable,  the  seraphic,  the  angelic. 
This  was  the  fashion  of  the  schools,  proceeding  either  from 
whim,  or  from  a  wish  to  render  a  marked  homage  to  the 
virtues  or  the  peculiar  talents  of  the  professors. 

Amongst  the  advantages  to  the  cause  of  literature  which 
seemed  to  result  from  the  institution  of  the  monastic  orders,  I 
think  that  I  omitted  one  which  was  already  become  manifest. 
We  have  seen  the  learned  teachers,  whatever  might  have 
been  the  country  of  their  nativity,  pass  from  city  to  city,  dif- 
fusing knowledge  and  inciting  to  the  acquisition  by  their 
example.  They  sometimes  resided  many  years  in  a  place, 
at  other  times  their  stay  was  transient,  but  at  all  times  it 
was  regulated  by  the  will  of  the  superior,  and  that  was  done 
which  he  deemed  expedient.  It  did  not  depend  on  the  in- 
dividual inclination  of  Aquinas  whether  he  studied  in 
Italy,  at  Cologne,  or  at  Paris;  or  whether  he  taught  in  these 
or  in  other  cities.  This  was  prescribed  by  the  proper  autho- 
rity, and  he  obeyed.  Thus  a  commonwealth  of  letters  was 
established,  first  for  the  benefit  of  the  order,  and  then  for 
that  of  the  public  of  all  nations.  The  ablest  members  of  this 
fraternity  went  in  search  of  learning  wherever  it  could  be 
obtained  with  most  convenience  and  advantage,  and  after- 
wards distributed  the  same  through  a  hundred  channels. 
The  Latin  language,  which  was  known  to  all,  was  the  uni- 
versal vehicle  of  communication.  Before  this  there  was  a 
general  complaint  that  teachers  could  not  be  found  unless 
the  salaries  were  adequate  to  their  wishes.  But  when  the 
monastic  orders  began  to  teach,  men  of  the  first  talents  en- 
tered themselves  in  the  list  of  instructors,  and  from  that 
moment  the  partial  attachments  of  kindred  and  of  country 
being  generously  suspended,  the  abilities  of  individuals  were 
devoted  to  the  good  of  all.  But  Paris  was  the '  principal 
theatre,  which  was  frequented  by  an  incredible  number  of 
students,  so  fascinating  continued  to  be  the  academical  exer- 
cises, and  sor ardent  the  love  of  public  disputation. 

I  could  pursue  with  pleasure  the  long  list  of  able  men 
who,  from  this  and  other  countries,  continued  in  an  uninter- 


1200.]  ROGER  BACON.  251 

rupted  succession  to  profess  the  scholastic  art.  I  might  men- 
tion John  Wallis,  a  Franciscan,  who,  having  studied  at  Oxford, 
taught  in  Paris,  where  he  acquired  the  name  of  the  Tree  of 
Life,  and  of  whose  talents  and  erudition  Leland  speaks  with 
his  usual  exaggeration.  To  him  I  might  add  John  Pecham, 
of  the  same  order,  who  studied  in  Oxford  and  in  Paris,  in  both 
which  cities  he  lectured,  and  afterwards  went  to  Lyons  and 
to  Rome,  where  he  acquired  great  distinction  by  his  legal 
knowledge,  and  where  he  was  raised  to  the  vacant  see  of 
Canterbury.  I  could  mention  John  of  Paris,  a  native  of 
that  city,  and  Richard  Middleton,  the  first  a  Dominican,  the 
second  a  Franciscan;  and  Giles  de  Colonna,  an  illustrious 
Roman  of  the  order  of  St.  Austin,  who  studied  and  taught 
in  Paris  and  other  cities,  and  who  passed  his  life  in  many 
honourable  and  learned  toils.  These  and  many  others,  some 
secular  ecclesiastics,  but  far  the  greatest  part  members  of  the 
new  religious  orders,  were  constantly  employed  as  I  have 
represented  them  in  diffusing  science,  such  as  it  was,  and 
fomenting  the  literary  ardour1  of  the  times. 

But  there  is  one  man  who  must  not  be  thus  transiently 
noticed — I  mean  Roger  Bacon,  born  early  in  the  century. 
After  finishing  the  elementary  studies  of  grammar  at  Oxford, 
he  devoted  his  whole  attention  to  philosophy,  the  recesses  of 
which  he  investigated  with  a  sagacity  which  was  hitherto  un- 
exampled. Having  his  mind  thus  richly  stored,  he  repaired 
to  Paris  in  the  company  of  many  other  youths.  Paris,  ob- 
serves the  historian,2  was  now  much  frequented  by  the 
English,  and  particularly  by  the  Oxonians.  Here  Bacon 
found  a  copious  variety  of  intellectual  nutriment.  He  sedu- 
lously applied  himself  to  languages,  to  history,  to  jurispru- 
dence, to  the  mathematics,  and  to  medicine;  and  closing  the 
wide  circle  by  theology,  he  was  appointed  to  a  public  chair, 
and  received  academical  honours.  His  own  country  was  now 
to  be  benefited  by  his  learning.  He  returned  to  Oxford,  and, 
by  the  persuasion  it  is  said  of  Grosteste,  (if  not  earlier,)  the 
friend  and  patron  of  the  order,  entered  among  the  Franciscans. 
He  prosecuted  his  former  studies  in  the  retirement  of  a  cell; 
took  a  more  accurate  survey  of  nature  and  her  laws;  metho- 
dised the  sciences,  and  particularly  the  philosophy  which  he 

1  Sec  I.rhniil  ili'  8<-ri]>.  It  rlt.  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  also  Hint.  Uiticir.  Oxon. 
passim,  and  Bib.  Lut.  tned.  eetat. 

-  Hist.  Culvers.  Oxon.  sub  an.  I'-J !'•_'. 


252  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

had  deeply  imbibed;  and  by  the  help  of  languages,  especially 
that  of  Greece,  accumulating  observations  which  the  common 
herd  of  scholars  found  it  impossible  to  obtain,  opened  a  way 
to  new  inquiries.  A  mind  like  his  could  observe,  could  in- 
vestigate, and  could  invent,  but  it  was  not  possible  to  advance 
without  instruments.  He  is  said  himself  to  have  constructed 
instruments,  to  have  engaged  the  ingenuity  of  others,  and  to 
have  expended  a  large  sum  in  the  purchase  of  books  and 
the  prosecution  of  experiments.  From  the  titles  of  his  works 
it  appears  that  perspective,  astronomy,  optics,  geometry,  the 
mechanic  arts,  chemistry,  and  alchymy,  were  amongst  his 
favourite  pursuits.  He  delivered  lectures  upon  these  and 
other  subjects. 

Leland,  in  his  usual  style,  wishes  for  a  hundred  tongues  and 
a  hundred  mouths,  that  he  might  be  able  to  celebrate  the 
wonderful  discoveries  of  Bacon  as  they  deserved.  His  con- 
temporaries were  less  adulatory.  Many  wondered,  but  in 
their  stupid  admiration  they  ascribed  his  inventions  to  the 
black  art.  In  his  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  and  the  Greek 
languages  they  saw  nothing  but  a  medium  of  holding  a  secret 
intercourse  with  the  devil,  and  the  same  suspicion  was  con- 
firmed by  the  lines  of  circles  and  triangles.  Nor  were  these 
the  surmises  only  of  the  vulgar;  men  even  of  some  education 
entertained  the  same;  the  brethren  of  his  order  refused  to 
admit  his  works  into  their  libraries,  and  are  said  to  have 
procured  his  incarceration. 

In  the  progress  of  man  towards  improvement  there  are 
certain  stages,  which,  if  too  rapidly  passed,  appear  to  retard 
rather  than  accelerate  his  advancement.  The  discoveries  of 
Roger  Bacon  were  productive  of  little  benefit  to  the  thirteenth 
century.  His  contemporaries  could  not  appreciate  their  value, 
and  ascribing  them  to  necromancy  or  supernatural  agency, 
they  added  new  strength  to  former  prejudices,  and  increased 
the  obstinacy  of  ignorance.  On  his  side,  the  philosopher 
despised  the  boasted  learning  of  the  schools,  not  considering 
that  this  very  learning,  by  giving  exercise  to  general  talents, 
was  perhaps  best  adapted  to  prepare  the  mind  for  that  degree 
of  light  which  was  tardily  but  gradually  dawning  around  it. 
Speaking  of  his  own  times,  he  says:  "Never  was  there 
such  a  show  of  wisdom,  such  exercises  in  all  branches  and 
in  all  kingdoms,  as  within  these  forty  years.  Teachers  are 
everywhere  dispersed  in  cities,  in  castles,  and  in  villages, 


1200.]  ROGER  BACON.  253 

taken  particularly  from  the  new  monastic  orders.  Yet  never 
was  there  more  ignorance,  more  error.  The  common  herd 
of  students,  poring  over  their  wretched  versions  (of  the  works 
of  Aristotle,)  lose  their  time,  their  application,  and  their 
money.  Yet  if  the  senseless  multitude  applaud,  they  are 
satisfied."  He  elsewhere  says  of  those  versions,  that  if  he 
had  them  in  his  power  they  should  be  committed  to  the 
flames,  as  serving  only  to  perpetuate  error  and  multiply 
ignorance. 

The  opinion  of  his  own  talents  and  acquirements  was 
widely  different.  In  his  OpusMajus,  addressed  to  Clement  IV., 
speaking  of  himself  he  says,  that  from  the  time  he  had 
learned  his  alphabet  he  had  spent  forty  years  in  the  study  of 
the  sciences  and  languages,  but  that  now,  in  the  half  of  one 
year  at  most,  he  would  undertake  to  communicate  all  his 
knowledge  to  any  diligent  man  possessed  of  a  sufficient  ca- 
pacity of  retention,  under  certain  easy  conditions,  which  he 
mentions.  He  doubts  not  but  that  within  three  days  he  can 
put  it  into  the  power  of  such  a  man  to  learn  the  Hebrew 
tongue  in  such  a  manner  as  accurately  to  understand  what 
may  be  necessary  for  the  elucidation  of  the  scriptures.  He 
will  infuse  the  Greek  language  in  the  same  space  of  time,  so 
that  whatever  has  been  written  concerning  theology  and  phi- 
losophy shall  be  clearly  comprehended;  and  as  to  geometry, 
it  shall  be  fully  developed  in  one  week,  and  arithmetic  in  a 
second.  What  opinion  must  we  form  of  the  extent  of  the 
knowledge  which  could  be  communicated  with  this  singular 
rapidity,  or  ought  we  to  lament  that  friar  Bacon  has  not  left 
behind  him  an  art  of  teaching  so  inestimably  valuable?  He 
died  about  the  year  1284,  and  was  buried  in  the  Franciscan 
convent  at  Oxford.1 

I  thought  to  have  closed  this  view  with  Bacon,  but  Gros- 
teste,  whom  I  have  more  than  once  mentioned,  demands  some 
further  notice.  lie  also  had  studied  in  the  sister  universities 
of  Oxford  and  Paris,  in  the  last  of  which  he  acquired  the 
knowledge  of  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  languages  and  of  the 
modern  French.  To  these  were  added  the  usual  stores  of 
philosophy  and  divinity,  and  such  other  learning  as  the  Gallic 
academy  could  supply.  As  a  teacher  in  Oxford,  his  fame 

1  See  more  on  tins  extraordinary  man  in  the  Hint.  Unircrs.  Oxan. —  See 
also  Lelnnd,  Cave,  &c.  His  Ojjua  Majits  was  published  iii  l^i-'J. 


254  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

was  great.  He  wrote  at  the  same  time  and  published  a  treatise 
on  the  Sphere  and  on  the  method  of  Computation,  with  other 
philosophical  tracts.  His  efforts  were  equally  distinguished  in 
theological  and  scriptural  research,  in  which  he  was  assisted 
by  his  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  and  the  Greek,  which  he 
occasionally  translated.  Roger  Bacon,  who  was  remarked  to 
be  very  parsimonious  of  his  praise,  speaking  of  the  qualifica- 
tions of  a  translator,  observes,  that  Grosteste  alone  could  be 
said  to  understand  the  learned  languages.  He  adds  that  he 
was  well  acquainted  "  with  the  mathematics  and  with  per- 
spective." Nothing  indeed  was  unattainable  by  him.  But  it 
was  not  before  the  close  of  life,  when  he  had  collected  round 
him  learned  men  and  learned  works,  that  he  was  able  to 
translate  accurately.1 

He  was  a  great  admirer  of  the  French  language,  which  he 
sometimes  preferred  to  Latin  and  to  his  own,  when  the  sub- 
ject which  he  treated  was  popular,  and  he  wished  to  engage 
the  attention  of  the  great.  Such  was  his  Manual  of  Sin. 
In  what  has  been  called  the  religious  allegory  of  the  Chateau 
<T Amour,  in  which  he  represented  the  fundamental  articles  of 
Christian  belief  under  the  ideas  of  chivalry,  he  manifested 
a  fondness  for  the  metre  and  music  of  the  French  minstrels. 
In  this  respect  also  his  views  were  benevolent,  but  as  the 
example  of  so  eminent  a  scholar  would  necessarily  induce 
imitation,  the  practice  of  writing  in  French  served  still  more 
to  impede  the  progressive  improvement  of  the  English  lan- 
guage by  rendering  it  an  object  of  less  attention.  It  has 
been  well  observed,  that,  in  the  infancy  of  language  and  com- 
position, nothing  is  wanted  but  writers,  and  at  this  period 
even  the  most  artless  have  their  use.2 

Grosteste  could  not  escape  the  accusation  of  necromancy, 
but  his  virtues  were  so  exalted,  and  his  reputation  in  the 
schools  was  so  high,  that  when  a  vacancy  happened  about 
the  year  1235,  he  was  called  to  the  see  of  Lincoln.  He  ma- 
nifested great  wisdom  in  this  important  charge,  but  opposing, 
as  became  a  Christian  bishop,  the  extortionary  system  of  the 
Homan  court,  which  at  no  time  was  more  severely  felt, 
he  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  pontiff,  and  was  cited  to 
appear  before  him.  It  is  related  that  he  obeyed  the  sum- 
mons, when  he  ably  defended  the  cause  of  his  church,  and 

1  See  Hist.  Univers.  Oxon.  sub  an.  1227.         -  Hist,  of  Eng.  Poet.  i.  ii. 


1200.]  ROBERT  GROSTESTE.  255 

was  dismissed.  Others  say  that  he  was  afterwards  excom- 
municated. However  this  may  be,  and  however  high  he  may 
stand  in  the  estimation  of  many  as  the  champion  of  ecclesias- 
tical liberty,  his  principles  on  the  unbounded  latitude  of  the 
Roman  prerogative  and  its  exercise  were  not  founded  on  any 
just  views  of  the  primitive  discipline,  nor  was  there  less  ser- 
vility in  his  conduct  nor  less  adulation  in  his  language, 
than  if  he  had  been  plunged  in  the  deepest  abyss  of  gross 
ignorance  and  obsequious  superstition.  This  is  attested  by 
his  writings.1  When  Innocent  IV.  indeed  presented  his 
infant  nephew  to  a  stall  in  Lincoln  cathedral,  his  indignation 
was  roused,  and  he  expressed  his  opposition  with  a  becoming 
fortitude;  but  when,  in  conformity  with  an  order  from  the 
Roman  nuncio,  the  bishop  about  the  same  time  began  to 
assess  the  clergy,  and  to  collect  a  tax  without  the  consent  of 
the  king — and  when  even  that  king,  though  the  weak 
Henry  III.,  complained — Grosteste  made  use  of  the  following 
remonstrance:  "  Your  majesty  must  be  sensible  that  the 
authority  and  precept  of  our  supreme  bishop  compel  us  to  do 
this,  whom  not  to  obey  would  be  as  the  sin"  of  witchcraft, 
and  as  the  sin  of  idolatry."  On  another  occasion,  when  the 
same  prince  refused  to  surrender  the  regalia  of  Winchester 
into  the  hands  of  a  bishop  whom  the  pontiff  approved,  the 
learned  Robert,  with  some  indignation,  remarked,  that  "  by 
so  doing  he  evidently  opposed  him  to  whom,  whilst  all  other 
princes  were  bound  in  fealty,  he,  by  the  charter  and  oath  of 
his  father  John,  under  the  severest  penalty,  was  especially 
subject."  And  speaking  of  the  power  of  bishops,  he  hesitates 
not  to  say  that  it  is  derived  "from  the  plenitude  of  the 
papal  jurisdiction."  I  could  multiply  the  instances  of  these 
sentiments.2  Grosteste  died  about  the  year  1253. 

Were  I  to  speak  of  such  works  of  this  prelate  as  I  have 
seen,  I  should  say  that,  though  they  certainly  announce 
talents  and  reading,  they  are  destitute  of  elegance,  and  evince 
no  acquaintance  with  classical  authorities.  But  still,  when 
compared  with  those  of  friar  Bacon,  who  seems  to  have 
utterly  disregarded  all  embellishments  of  style,  they  may  be 
deemed  entitled  to  some  encomium  in  point  of  scholarship.3 

1  See  Append,  ad  Fascicul.  rerum  Expetend.  et  Fugiend.  ii.  244. 

2  Ibid. 

3  See  Lelaud,  Cave,  Anglia  Sacra,  ii.     Bib.  Lat.  med.  netat.  iii. 


256  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

Both  these  great  men,  it  seem.?,  had  cultivated  the  Greek 
and  Hebrew  languages.  The  first  had  never  been  utterly 
neglected;  and  the  means  of  acquiring  the  second  were  amply 
supplied  by  the  Jews,  who,  from  the  time  of  the  Norman 
conquest,  had  been  permitted  to  settle  in  the  country.  In 
Oxford  they  were  numerous,  where  they  acquired  property, 
and  opened  a  school  for  the  instruction  of  their  own  people 
and  of  many  Christian  students  in  the  Hebrew  literature. 
But  towards  the  end  of  this  century  they  were  banished;  and 
the  suddenness  of  their  dismissal  obliging  them  to  sell  their 
moveable  effects,  great  stores  of  manuscripts  were  purchased 
by  the  convents,  and  collected  by  the  curiosity  of  individuals. 
The  friars  of  Oxford,  prompted  doubtless  by  the  zeal  of 
Roger  Bacon,  are  said  to  have  signally  enriched  themselves 
on  the  occasion.1 

As  the  name  of  Aristotle  has  been  often  mentioned,  it  may 
not  be  uninteresting  briefly  to  state  the  various  fortunes 
which  his  authority  experienced  in  the  course  of  this  century, 
particularly  in  the  schools  of  Paris.  That  all  the  translations 
of  his  works  which  had  been  hitherto  circulated  in  the  west 
were  remarkably  inaccurate,  may  be  asserted  on  the  evidence 
of  Bacon,  and  on  that  of  other  writers.'2  Still  they  continued 
to  be  read,  and  to  have  the  force  of  oracles.  In  the  best  ages 
of  the  Christian  church,  not  only  the  Latin  fathers — who 
might  be  thought  incompetent  judges — but  even  the  Greek 
had  objected  to  the  use  which  some  were  disposed  to  make 
of  the  writings  of  Aristotle  and  of  other  philosophers  in 
explaining  the  tenets  of  their  faith.  They  affirmed  that  its 
simplicity  would  be  corrupted,  and  its  truths  bewildered  in 
sophisms.  But  nothing  could  check  the  arrogance  of  the 
conceited  pretenders  to  science.  Platonism  owed  its  intro- 
duction to  the  Alexandrian  doctors ;  but  Aristotle  soon 
acquired  a  predominating  sway.  This  increased  as  scholas- 
ticism became  established;  and  the  reader  will  recollect  the 
triumphant  career  of  Abailard,  and  the  complaints  of  the 
more  temperate  St.  Bernard.  That  sophist,  with  those  who 
followed  in  the  same  path,  were  denominated  the  labyrinths 
of  France,  whom  the  spirit  of  Aristotle  had  inspired. 

A  provincial  synod,  which  was  held  in  Paris  in  1209,  in 

»  Hist.  Antiq.  Oxon.'  77,  132. 

2  Hist.  Univers.  Oxon.  sub  ail.  1272. 


1200.]  THE  VARIOUS  FORTUNES  OF  ARISTOTLE.  2o7 

consequence  of  some  recent  errors,  ordered,  that  such  -works 
of  the  philosopher  as  had  been  lately  brought  from  Constan- 
tinople and  translated  in  Latin,  and  had  begun  to  be  read  in 
the  schools,  should  be  burned,  and  that  no  one  should  here- 
after either  read  or  keep  them  in  his  possession.  They  are 
generally  described  as  treating  of  metaphysics.  Six  years 
after  this,  a  Koman  legate,  despatched  by  Innocent  III.  in 
order  still  further  to  regulate  the  schools  of  Paris,  directed 
that  the  dialectic  or  organum  of  Aristotle  should  be  studied, 
but  forbade  the  perusal  of  his  metaphysical  and  physical 
works,  with  their  commentaries.  In  1231,  a  rescript  of 
Gregory  IX.,  not  mentioning  his  other  works,  ordains,  that 
those  on  natural  philosophy — libri  illi  naturales — which  the 
provincial  synod  had  interdicted,  should  not  be  used  in  the 
university  till  they  had  been  examined  and  purified  from  all 
suspicion  of  error.  In  1265,  the  regulations  of  Innocent  III. 
were  confirmed  by  a  legate  sent  by  Clement  IV.1 

Up  to  this  period,  such  appear  to  have  been  the  fortunes 
of  Aristotle  in  the  schools  of  Paris,  which,  though  they  expe- 
rienced some  fluctuations,  still  rather  gained  ground;  while 
some,  even  in  these  schools,  little  regarded  the  papal  ordi- 
nances, and  elsewhere,  as  at  Oxford  and  Cologne,  the  works 
of  the  Stagyrite  continued,  as  they  had  previously  done,  to 
engage  the  attention  of  the  learned.  But  what  is  most 
remarkable  in  the  history  of  opinions  is  a  command,  issued 
about  the  year  1261,  by  Urban  IV.  to  Thomas  Aquinas, 
directing  him  to  translate  and  write  a  commentary  on  the 
works  of  Aristotle.  The  works  were  translated,  though  not 
by  Aquinas,  who  wrote  a  commentary  on  those  books,  among 
others,  which  had  been  so  severely  proscribed  at  Paris.  The 
same  had  been  done  by  Albertus  Magnus.  Urban  was  him- 
self a  philosopher  and  devoted  to  study.  This  circumstance 
will  account  for  his  conduct,  as  likewise  for  that  of  his  suc- 
cessor Clement  IV.,  who  in  the  first  year  of  his  pontificate, 
1265,  and  four  years  at  most  after  the  command  given  to 
Aquinas,  renewed,  through  the  medium  of  his  legate  at  Paris, 
the  prohibition  against  the  works  of  Aristotle.2 

In  the  following  century,  the  attention  of  the  popes  was 

1  Ivan.  Launvius  de  varia  Aristotclin/nrtuna. — Also  Hist.  Univcrs.  Oxon. 
sub  an.  127'.'. 

1  Lauuvius  ut  ante,  Tiraboschi.  iv.  17'2. 

S 


258         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D, 

still  occupied  by  the  writings  of  the  philosopher,  but  they 
gradually  obtained  an  increase  of  favour  and  indulgence.  One 
work  after  another  was  licensed,  though  reclamations  were 
sometimes  heard,  till  the  public  voice  finally  triumphed;  and 
Aristotle  became,  as  the  oracle  of  the  schools,  by  a  formal 
decree  of  the  university.1  Such  is  the  uncertainty  of  human 
approbation,  and  such  are  the  vicissitudes  of  human  opinions. 

From  the  accuracy  which  the  scholastic  method  had  in- 
troduced in  every  process  of  reasoning,  and  from  the  ardour 
with  which  it  was  pursued,  it  was  natural,  a  priori,  to  have 
concluded  that  other  studies  would  have  experienced  its 
effects;  and  that  the  evidence  of  reason  or  of  facts,  rather  than 
dogmatic  assertion  or  vulgar  prejudice,  would  be  sought  and 
preferred  in  every  inquiry.  This  I  should  have  particularly 
expected  in  the  writers  of  history.  But  nevertheless  in  his- 
torical compositions  we  still  perceive  the  same  want  of  critical 
discrimination,  the  same  fondness  for  the  marvellous,  and  the 
same  excess  of  credulity,  as  we  noticed  in  the  writers  of  the 
darkest  period.  They  likewise  express  the  same  confidence 
that  they  shall  gain  credit  with  their  readers. 

Some  good-natured  apologies  have  been  offered  for  these 
defects.  What  guides,  it  is  asked,  had  they?  What  lights 
by  which  to  discern  truth  from  falsehood  ?2  They  had  the 
classical  works  of  the  ancients,  which  have  become  our  guides, 
and  which  it  is  pretended  that  their  monks  were  perpetually 
transcribing.  They  had  the  same  general  nature  as  ourselves; 
the  natural  world  presented  the  same  laws  to  their  contem- 
plation as  to  ours;  they  had  the  same  passions  to  delineate; 
they  had  the  same  experience  of  the  deviation  from  truth  and 
the  liability  to  error;  and,  in  short,  the  great  line  of  distinc- 
tion between  truth  and  falsehood  was  as  clearly  perceptible 
in  the  thirteenth  century  as  it  is  in  the  nineteenth.  But  they 
manifested  no  solicitude  in  the  detection  of  error  or  the  esta- 
blishment of  truth  ;  they  carelessly  overlooked  the  line  of 
distinction  between  them  ;  and  they  artfully  preferred  the 
puerile  and  the  marvellous,  which  constitute  the  delight  of 
an  ignorant  age,  to  the  simple  exposition  of  facts.  It  was, 
perhaps,  a  willingness  to  comply  with  the  popular  appetite 
for  tales  of  wonder  and  prodigies  which  mock  credibility, 
which  induced  the  writers  of  history  to  be  less  wary  and 

1  Launvius,  ut  ante.  2  Storia  della  Let.  Ital.  iv.  337. 


1200.]  ITALIAN  HISTORIANS.  259 

scrutinizing  than  their  contemporaries,  the  schoolmen,  in  the 
investigation  of  metaphysical  truth. 

The  writers  of  Italian  history  are  divided  into  those  who 
have  left  Chronicles  of  General  History,  from  the  earliest 
times  down  to  their  own  days;  those  who  have  treated  on 
the  histories  of  some  particular  state,  or  province,  or  city. 
These  are  numerous,  and  are  sometimes  written  in  Italian, 
but  oftener  in  Latin — generally  in  prose,  but  sometimes  in 
verse.  In  recording  the  events  of  modern  times,  it  is  agreed 
they  display  much  truth  and  accuracy,  and  their  narratives 
have  an  air  of  simplicity  and  candour  which  irresistibly  con- 
ciliates belief.  But  in  respect  to  times  long  anterior  to  those 
in  which  they  wrote,  they  merely  repeat  what  was  before 
said,  whilst  they  labour  to  augment  the  mass  of  fabulous 
matter,  and  hence  their  compilations  possess  no  value.1  The 
taste  of  writing  history  in  verse  not  peculiar  to  the  soil  of 
Italy  could  never  have  gained  admirers  but  in  an  age  when 
the  single  difficulty  of  the  execution  was  presumed  to  consti- 
tute a  peculiar  merit.  They  thought  that  the  truth  of  history 
was  improved  by  being  versified. 

Though  the  subject  is  little  deserving  of  notice,  except  as  it 
shows — notwithstanding  the  great  learning  of  many,  and  their 
logical  acuteness — the  general  deficiency  of  intellectual  cul- 
ture, I  will  mention  that  the  celebrated  work  which  afterward, 
on  account  of  its  supposed  excellence,  acquired  the  appella- 
tion of  the  Golden  Legend,  appeared  towards  the  close  of  the 
century.  It  was  a  compilation  of  the  Lives  of  the  Saints,  of 
which  the  materials  were  brought  together  from  all  quarters, 
with  a  rich  tissue  of  fabulous  extravagance.  It  was  written 
by  James  da  Voragine,  an  Italian  Dominican,  afterward  arch- 
bishop  of  Genoa.  The  popularity  of  this  work  did  not  cease 
with  the  times  in  which  it  was  written;  and  though,  in  order 
to  exculpate  its  author,  who  had  taught  the  sciences  and  was 
famed  as  a  public  preacher,  it  is  said  that  he  merely  collected 
what  had  been  written  by  others,  it  still  remains  an  irre- 
fragable proof  of  the  genuine  taste  and  credulity  of  the 
individual.  Indeed,  the  love  of  the  marvellous  was  so  pre- 
dominant in  his  character,  that  when  he  published  a  Chronicle 

1  See  Rernm  Itul.  Scrip,  in  •which  compilation  is  given  the  valuable  part 
of  these  histories,  introduced  by  learned  prefaces. 

S2 


260         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

of  the  city  of  Genoa,  he  took  care  to  embellish  it  with  the 
decorations  of  the  Golden  Legend.1 

Other  countries  had,  at  the  same  time,  their  historians. 
The  conquest  of  Constantinople  by  the  Latins  was  written  by 
Geoffry  Villehardoin,  a  Frenchman,  who  accompanied  the 
expedition;  and  the  history  of  the  reign  of  Philip  Augustus 
by  Rigord,  while  "William  le  Breton  celebrated  the  same 
reign  in  Latin  verse.  The  interesting  history  of  the  life  of 
Louis  IX.  in  French,  by  Irinville,  his  confidential  friend  and 
companion,  properly  belongs  to  the  following  century.  But 
I  may  be  permitted  to  pass  over  these  and  other  writers  of 
history,  the  general  character  of  whose  works  has  been  faith- 
fully delineated,  and  to  pause  at  that  of  our  countryman, 
Matthew  Paris,  the  learned,  the  candid,  the  exact  monk  of 
St.  Albans. 

Few  incidents  of  his  life  are  known.  It  appears  that  he 
had  early  acquired  the  character  of  a  morigerous  and  well- 
disciplined  monk,  as  he  was  employed,  at  the  request  of  the 
Norwegians,  to  reform  the  manners  of  the  monastic  order  in 
those  countries;  and  we  find  him  much  favoured  after  his 
return  by  our  reigning  prince,  Henry  III.  "We  are  told 
that,  from  ancient  times,  it  had  been  the  practice  in  the 
British  court  to  maintain  a  chronicler  at  the  king's  expense, 
who  attended  his  person,  and  whose  office  it  was  to  record 
events.  It  is  added,  that  the  record  was  not  opened  during 
the  prince's  reign,  nor  during  that  of  his  sons;  but  was  care- 
fully preserved  among  the  archives  of  the  malm.  Whatever 
we  may  think  of  the  truth  of  this  precautionary  measure, 
Matthew  Paris  certainly  lived  much  in  the  family  of  Henry, 
was  with  him  "  in  his  palace,  at  his  table,  and  in  his  closet," 
where  he  received  from  his  mouth  the  minutes  of  many 
transactions,  which  he  committed  to  writing  with  the  general 
events  of  the  times.  This  he  himself  relates.  To  knowledge 
thus  acquired,  and  to  daily  observation,  he  added  a  deep 
research  into  the  records  of  former  times;  an  insight  into 
general  science,  and  the  lighter  embellishments  of  the  arts. 
His  hand-writing  was  beautifully  elegant,  and  he  understood 
design  and  painting,  many  specimens  of  which  served  to 

1  The  Chronicle,  without  its  fables,  is  edited  by  Muratori,  ix.  Scrip.  Eer. 
Ital. 


1200.]  THE  MONK  OF  ST.   ALBAN's.  261 

decorate  his  historical  productions.      He  died  in  the  year 
1259.1 

The  principal  work  of  Paris  is  his  Historia  Major,  com- 
prising the  reigns  of  the  eight  first  kings  of  the  Norman 
dynasty,  from  the  year  1066  to  1259.  It  is  acknowledged 
that  this  work — the  events  of  three  and  twenty  years  ex- 
cepted — was  written  by  Roger  de  Wendover,  a  monk  of  the 
same  convent,  which  Matthew  only  transcribed,  with  a  few 
alterations,  and  with  an  addition  of  the  succeeding  events  to 
the  time  of  his  own  death.  What  follows,  to  the  year  1273, 
the  close  of  the  reign  of  Henry  III.,  was  supplied  by  William 
Rishanger,  who  was  also  a  monk  of  St.  Alban's,  and  the 
chronicler  of  Edward  I.  An  abstract  of  this  work,  under  the 
title  of  Chronica,  since  called  the  Historia  Minor,  and  con- 
taining some  events  omitted  in  the  larger  history,  was  like- 
wise compiled  by  Paris,  who  also  wrote  the  Lives  of  the 
Offas,  the  two  Mercian  kings  who  founded  the  abbey  of  St. 
Albans,  as  well  as  the  lives  of  the  twenty-three  abbots  who 
had  governed  the  monastery. 

For  sincerity  of  narration,  truth  of  colouring,  and  extent  of 
information,  the  Historia  Major  may  be  justly  deemed  as 
valuable  a  work  as  this  or  any  other  age  had  produced. 
Though  Matthew  Paris  were  not  the  sole  author,  yet  he 
made  it  lu's  own;  and  as  he  is  chargeable  with  its  defects,  he 
is  entitled  to  the  praise  due  to  its  excellence.  If  we  except 
perhaps  the  two  Williams  of  Malmesbury  and  Neuburg, 
the  most  Latin  of  our  Latin  historiographers  is  the  monk  of 
St.  Alban's.  His  style,  however,  is  unequal.  It  is  sometimes 
remarkable  for  its  spirit  or  its  elegance,  and  at  others  for  its 
inflation  or  its  insipidity;  or  in  other  words,  it  is  ever  in 
unison  with  the  character  of  the  age.  What  is  most  singular 
in  him  redounds  much  to  his  praise.  He  was  ever  a  warm 
advocate  for  justice  and  for  truth;  whilst  abuses,  of  every 
description  and  from  whatever  quarter  they  might  proceed, 
provoked  his  inexorable  enmity.  His  humour  has  been 
thought  too  severe  and  caustic:  Trojan  and  Tyrian  equally 
smart  under  his  lash;  and  it  is  with  strong  approbation  we 
see  that  when  monk,  prelate,  prince,  emperor,  or  pope,  has 
incurred  his  displeasure,  that  is,  has  deviated  from  what  in 

1  See  the  Prefaces  and  Testimonies  prefixed  to  the  London  edition  of 
Matthew  Paris,  by  Dr.  \Vntts. 


262        LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

his  apprehension  was  the  line  of  rectitude,  he  is  unreserved 
in  his  censure,  and  his  language  is  that  of  vigour  and  intre- 
pidity. Those  who  have  been  too  servilely  devoted  to  the 
Roman  court  have  blamed  this  undaunted  freedom  of  the 
English  monk,  whom  they  represent  as  ill-affected  towards 
their  bishop,  and  have  seized  with  avidity  every  opportunity 
of  aspersing  his  fame,  vilifying  his  conduct,  exposing  his 
councils,  and  loading  him  with  invective.  "  Take  from  the 
work,"  says  the  learned  Baronius,1  "  these  fatal  blemishes, 
and  I  will  call  it  a  golden  volume,  admirably  compiled  from 
authentic  documents,  and  faithfully  reporting  their  contents." 

It  would  not  be  difficult,  from  the  Annals  of  the  illustrious 
cardinal  themselves,  to  prove  his  censure  of  the  worthy  histo- 
rian to  be  unjust;  for  he  stated  only  the  grievances  which 
were  felt,  and  re-echoed  only  the  loud  complaints  which  were 
heard  in  every  country,  and  in  none  more  than  in  his  own. 
But  this  belongs  not  to  me.  I  will  further  only  observe  that 
the  history  of  Matthew  Paris  abounds  with  various  informa- 
tion concerning  the  transactions  of  other  states  and  other 
churches,  and  that  the  whole  is  interspersed  with  many 
fabulous  narratives,  which,  whilst  they  afforded  entertainment 
to  the  readers  of  the  thirteenth  century,  are  to  us  an  addi- 
tional proof  that  no  mind,  however  highly  cultivated  and 
richly  stored,  can  wholly  escape  from  the  influence  of  the 
errors  and  prejudices  which  abound  in  the  times  in  which  he 
lives.  It  is  the  tribute  which  intellectual  superiority  pays  to 
the  infirmities  of  our  common  nature. 

When  I  spoke  of  the  French  poets,  the  Trouveurs  and 
Troubadours,  I  observed  that  the  Provencal,  which  was  the 
language  of  the  latter,  was  cultivated  by  many  natives  of 
Italy;  while  no  experiment  was  made  on  the  versifying 
powers  of  their  own  tongue,  or  it  was  used  only  for  the  pur- 
poses of  colloquial  intercourse.  It  is  indeed  admitted 
that  no  example  of  their  prose -writing  had  been  discovered 
which  is  more  ancient  than  the  middle  of  the  age;  and 
when  the  Sicilians,  the  Tuscans,  and  others,  made  their  first 
essays,  they  were  void  of  elegance  and  harmony.  I  do  not 
pretend  to  have  ascertained  why  they  were  wanting  also  in 
that  bold  imagery  and  those  wild  approaches  to  the  sublime 
which  are  observed  in  the  early  productions  of  more  northern 

1  Annal.  Eccles.  sub  an.  996,  n.  63. 


1200.]  THE  SAXON  LANGUAGE.  263 

nations.  It  might  indeed  be  conjectured  that,  as  the  Italians 
were  no  more  than  the  mutilated  and  adulterated  reliques 
of  a  people  that  had  once  been  great,  and  not  a  primitive 
race  rising  into  manhood  with  vigorous  luxuriance,  only 
feeble  and  languid  efforts,  rather  than  those  of  a  vivid  and 
irregularly  daring  character,  were  to  be  expected.  The 
observation,  if  founded  on  any  truth,  will  equally  apply  at 
this  time  to  other  European  nations,  and  account  in  some 
degree  for  the  faint  and  debilitated  insipidity  of  their  poetical 
compositions.  Another  reason  may  have  been,  that  feeling 
no  elevation  of  mind  from  the  influence  of  manners,  or  the 
views  of  religion,  they  were  satisfied  with  adopting  any  tale 
or  popular  subject  which  was  presented  to  them,  and  which 
they  clothed  in  their  own  homely  attire.  The  historian  of 
Italian  literature,  with  all  his  partialities,  has,  on  this  subject 
at  least,  nothing  interesting  to  produce,  and  we  may  leave 
this  soil  of  Hesperia  without  regret.1 

But  shall  we  elsewhere  find  a  soil  at  all  more  propitious 
to  the  muses?  I  have  no  antiquarian  taste,  that  is,  I  cannot 
discover  elegance  of  form  in  the  works  of  art,  because  they 
happen  to  be  signalized  by  rust  and  the  scars  of  age;  nor  do 
I  trace  the  lineaments  of  genius  in  the  productions  of  intellect, 
because  their  phraseology  is  obsolete,  or  the  copies  of  them 
are  rare.  The  productions  of  France  and  England  were  at 
this  time  so  very  similar,  from  the  constant  intercourse 
between  the  two  countries,  that  it  may  seem  indifferent  from 
which  side  of  the  channel  I  select  specimens  of  the  poetic 
art.  The  only  perceptible  difference  was  in  the  diction. 
The  Norman-French  was  indeed  still  spoken  at  our  court, 
and  was  in  general  use  among  the  nobility  and  their  de- 
pendents, but  the  Anglo-Saxon  or  English  was  advancing 
fast  towards  a  definite  and  characteristic  standard. 

The  fabulous  history  of  Britain,  written  in  Latin  by 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  that  is,  translated  by  him  into  that 
language  from  the  British  or  Armorica,2  about  the  year  1125, 

1  Storia  della  Letterat.  Ital.  iv.,  of  which  the  whole  third  hook  deserves 
to  be  read. 

2  The   original  copy  was  brought  into  England  by  Gualtier,  as  before 
noticed,  archdeacon  of  Oxford,  and  committed  to  the  care  of  Geoffrey.    The 
translation  is  allowed  to  have  been  executed  by  him  with  a  certain  purity, 
but  with  little  fidflity,  us  many  variations  and  additions  sufficiently  prove. 
See  Hist,  of  Eng.  Poet.  Dissert,  i. 


264        LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

had  excited  a  very  general  curiosity,  but  it  could  be  read 
only  by  scholars.  It  was  therefore,  as  soon  as  might  be, 
translated  into  French  by  Robert  Wace,  a  native  of  Jersey; 
and  about  thirty  years  later,  that  is,  about  1185,  a  Saxon 
version  was  made  by  one  Layamon,  a  priest.  Both  versions 
are  metrical,  and  the  Saxon  I  should  have  said  was  taken  or 
imitated  not  from  the  Latin,  but  from  the  French  trans- 
lation. 

From  this  incident  of  a  Saxon  poetical  version  for  the 
use  of  the  people  being  made  so  late,  and  also  from  the 
Chronicle  which  is  entitled  the  Saxon  being  itself  coeval 
with  the  death  of  king  Stephen,  which  it  relates — those  who 
are  learned  on  these  subjects  have  inferred  that  the  Saxon 
language,  "  pure  and  unmixed,"  however  degraded  by  the 
Norman  ascendancy,  continued  to  be  generally  spoken  down 
to  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  when  it  began  to  be  more 
blended  with  the  Norman-French  and  to  assume  a  new 
character. 

To  me  there  appears  more  of  system  than  of  truth  in  this 
notion.  The  Saxon,  from  the  time  of  the  Norman  conquest, 
must  necessarily  have  experienced  a  gradual  alteration  in  its 
phraseology  and  idiom.  Though  the  conquerors  and  the  con- 
quered did  not  cordially  coalesce,  we  must  recollect  that 
French  was  the  language  of  the  prince  and  of  his  nobles, 
amongst  whom  the  soil  and  the  riches  of  the  country  Avere 
distributed.1  French  was  the  language  which  opened  the 
avenue  to  protection  and  favour:  it  would  accordingly  be 
spoken  by  the  higher  clergy;  be  employed  on  many  occa- 
sions of  civil  intercourse;  regulate  the  discipline  and  tactics 
of  the  military  force;  and  we  know  that  it  was  the  language 
in  which  the  new  laws  were  written,  and  justice  was  admi- 
nistered. On  the  other  hand,  it  is  probable  that  the  con- 
querors themselves,  in  whatever  style  of  haughty  seclusion 
they  may  be  thought  to  have  occupied  their  castles,  would 
at  least  maintain  some  intercourse  with  their  vassals,  and 
would  often  be  inclined  to  learn  the  vulgar  tongue,  from 
expediency  or  from  choice.  An  interchange  of  communica- 
tion of  this  kind  would  gradually  affect  both  tongues;  but  we 
know  which  was  finally  compelled  to  yield  the  palm  to  its  an- 

[>  A  Histoire  dt  la  langue  Francais,  by  Gabriel  Henry,  appeared  at  Paris 
in  1811,  2  vols.  8vo.] 


1200.]  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  265 

tagonists.  The  Saxon,  which  was  the  language  of  the  people, 
triumphed  over  the  idiom  of  the  conqueror;  and  before  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  it  is  allowed  that  the  Nor- 
man-French, though  necessarily  kept  alive  by  our  connexion 
with  the  continent,  surrendered  its  claims  to  general  currency, 
after  having  contributed  something  to  the  copiousness  or  the 
improvement  of  the  national  speech. 

But  what  I  wish  most  to  insist  on  is,  that  the  English  which 
was  spoken  and  written  at  this  time  did  not  exhibit  a  more 
glaring  dissimilitude  from  the  Saxon  of  a  preceding  period, 
than  what  every  language,  exposed  as  this  had  been  to  the  in- 
roads of  another  tongue,  must  unavoidably  have  experienced. 
In  truth,  more  than  this  perhaps  none  of  our  antiquarian 
writers  mean  to  assert,  though  sometimes  they  seem  to  say 
more,  and  to  fix  on  some  certain  epoch  when  a  complete 
change  was  effected  as  if  by  a  sudden  revolution.  "  The 
most  striking  peculiarity,"  says  a  recent  ingenious  author,1 
"  in  the  establishment  of  our  vulgar  English  is,  that  it 
appears  to  have  very  suddenly  superseded  the  pure  and  legiti- 
mate Saxon  from  which  its  elements  were  principally  derived, 
instead  of  becoming  its  successor,  as  generally  has  been  sup- 
posed, by  a  slow  and  imperceptible  process."  And  this  he 
conceives  to  have  happened  about  the  year  1180,  when  the 
two  nations,  laying  aside  their  antipathies,  began  to  live  to- 
gether in  amity  and  to  participate  in  a  common  literature  and 
language.  "In  1216,"  he  adds,2  "the  change  may  be  con- 
sidered as  complete."  This  year  coincides  with  the  first  of 
Henry  III.  Yet,  referring  to  these  times,  Dr.  Johnson  says, 
"  Hitherto  the  language  spoken  in  this  island,  however  dif- 
ferent in  successive  times,  may  be  called  Saxon;  nor  can  it  be 
expected,  from  the  nature  of  things  gradually  changing,  that 
any  lime  can  be  assigned  when  the  Saxon  may  be  said  to  cease 
and  the  English  to  commence." 

If  the  reader  will  now  turn  to  the  volume  which  I  have 
quoted,  and  compare  together  the  Saxon  ode  on  Athelstan's 
victory*  Layamon's  translation,4  which  has  been  mentioned, 
of  Wace's  Brut,  from  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  and  the  de- 
scription of  the  land  of  Cokainef  with  the  succeeding  poems, 
he  will  be  able  to  form  an  accurate  judgment  on  the  subject. 

1  Sj/<"-imcn$  ofearli/  Enqlhh  Poetry,  ii.  404. 

2  Ibid.  i.  70.  ''  Ibi'd.  14.  «  Ibid.  01.  »  Ibid.  83. 


266        LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

In  the  ode,  which  was  written  more  than  a  hundred  years 
before  the  Conquest,  he  will  read  the  pure  Saxon,  unmixed 
with  any  foreign  alloy;  in  Layamon's  imitation— of  a  more 
recent  date  by  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  and  more  than  one 
hundred  from  the  Conquest — the  same  language  will  be  seen, 
but  greatly  altered,  and  far  more  intelligible  to  an  English 
ear.  In  the  description  of  Cokaine — a  poem  of  the  beginning 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  therefore  by  a  few  years  only 
removed  from  Layamon — the  Saxon  language  will  present 
itself,  as  is  pretended,  completely  rendered  English,  that  is, 
the  Anglo-Saxon  and  Anglo-Norman  will  be  melted  down 
into  one  common  tongue. 

To  this  opinion  I  cannot  subscribe.  I  see  in  the  latter  not 
so  great  a  deviation  from  Layamon,  as  there  is  a  deviation  in 
Layamon  from  the  ode  on  Victory;  and  yet  the  author  roundly 
asserts  that  Layamon's  "phraseology  does  not  contain  a  word 
that  we  must  necessarily  refer  to  a  French  origin,  and  that  it 
may  be  considered  as  simple  and  unmixed,  though  very  bar- 
barous Saxon."  It  is  not  mixed  with  French;  but  it  has 
evidently  undergone  a  change,  and  is  rapidly  approaching  the 
confines  of  that  state  when  by  the  admission  of  a  few  Norman 
words,  by  which  its  grammatical  construction  is  not  affected, 
it  assumes  the  name  of  English.  To  this  I  readily  assent: 
my  opinion,  which  is  founded  upon  the  palpable  change  in  the 
language  is,  that  from  the  time  of  the  Conquest,  if  not  from 
that  of  the  Danish  invasion,  a  revolution  had  been  gradually 
taking  place  in  the  Saxon  speech:  and  not  that,  in  the  space 
of  a  few  years,  from  being  simple  and  unmixed,  it  suddenly 
became  English.  "  About  the  year  1150,"  observes  our  great 
lexicographer,1  "the  Saxon  began  to  take  a  form,  in  which 
the  beginning  of  the  present  English  may  be  plainly  dis- 
covered. This  change  seems  not  to  have  been  the  effect  of 
the  Norman  conquest,  for  very  few  French  words  are  found 
to  have  been  introduced  in  the  first  hundred  years  after  it: 
the  language  must  therefore  have  been  altered  by  causes  like 
those  which,  notwithstanding  the  care  of  writers,  and  societies 
instituted  to  obviate  them,  are  even  now  daily  making  inno- 
vations in  every  living  language." 

The  gradations  by  which  the  Saxon  was  insensibly  moulded 
into  the  English  language  have  been  accurately  described  by 

1  Introduction  to  his  Dictionary. 


1200.]  RISE  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  267 

Dr.  Johnson;  but  his  opinion,  that  the  cause  of  these  changes 
is  inexplicable,  is  not  so  readily  admitted.  "  The  adultera- 
tion of  the  Saxon  tongue  by  a  mixture  of  the  Norman,"  says 
the  doctor,1  "becomes  apparent;  yet  it  is  not  so  much  altered 
by  the  admixture  of  new  words,  which  might  be  imputed  to 
commerce  with  the  continent,  as  by  changes  of  its  own  forms 
and  terminations,  for  which  no  reason  can  be  given."  Yet 
as  these  changes  in  the  Saxon  consist  solely  in  the  extinc- 
tion of  its  ancient  grammatical  inflections,  and  are  similar  to 
the  alterations  by  which  the  Latin  was  gradually  transformed 
into  the  several  Romance  dialects,  it  is  suggested  that  they 
may  be  explained  on  the  same  principles.  Be  it  so.  But 
who — when  he  considers  the  thousand  turns  originating  in 
fancy,  in  some  accidental  combination,  or  the  absolute  igno- 
rance of  all  rule,  on  which  in  the  progress  of  the  darkest 
time.s  the  modern  languages  of  the  greater  part  of  Europe 
were  fortuitously  thrown  together,  rather  than  deliberately 
formed — will  look  for  steady  principles?  Besides,  what  is 
singularly  remarkable  in  the  early  Anglo-Saxon,  or  English, 
is,  that  it  ceased  to  be  Saxon  by  an  admixture  as  it  should 
seem  with  the  Norman,  without  taking  from  the  latter  more 
than  a  few  words,  and  with  no  change  in  its  syntax  or  gram- 
matical construction.  It  was  not  so  in  the  Romance  dialects, 
derived  from  the  Latin.  But  I  must  close  this  digression,  if 
it  be  such,  into  which  I  have  been  insensibly  led,  and  very 
briefly  remark  on  the  poetry  of  the  several  pieces  to  which  I 
referred  the  reader. 

If  we  take  that  of  the  ode,  which  is  avowedly  Saxon,  we 
shall  discover  in  it  the  sudden  flashes,  the  abrupt  transitions, 
the  obscure  style,  and  the  savage  spirit,  that  uniformly  per- 
vaded the  Runic  and  Celtic  compositions,  as  far  as  we  may 
rely  on  versions  with  which  the  public  has  been  entertained. 
The  ode  attests  that  such  was  the  genuine  character  of  the 
northern  poetry,  even  in  the  tenth  century,  when  Christianity 
had  greatly  softened  its  original  features.  But  after  the  lapse 
of  something  more  than  a  hundred  years  from  the  Conquest, 
the  ancient  spirit  manifested  a  miserable  degeneracy.  At  this 
time  Layamon  wrote.  His  work,  as  already  mentioned,  is  a 
version  from  the  French,  and  the  passage  to  which  I  refer 
contains  a  description  of  the  ceremonies  and  sports  of  king 

1  Introduction  to  his  Dictionary. 


268         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

Arthur's  coronation.  The  passage  may  claim  some  merit  as 
descriptive  of  the  manners  of  the  times  ;  but  as  a  compo- 
sition it  is  utterly  void  of  every  element  of  poetry.  It  is  in- 
ferior to  the  French,  which  it  professes  to  imitate,  and  much 
inferior  to  the  Latin  prose  of  Geoffrey,  from  which  both  are 
taken.  The  obscurity,  which  may  sometimes  puzzle,  may  I 
think  be  owing,  not  to  the  impassioned  brevity  which  we  ob- 
served in  the  ode,  but  to  its  strange  orthography,  which,  if  it 
were  removed,  we  should  perceive  that  it  makes  nearer  ap- 
proaches to  the  English  idiom  than  we  have  been  taught  to 
believe.  The  subject,  I  admit,  is  less  animating  than  that  of 
the  ode,  and,  impeded  by  the  restrictions  of  translation,  it 
allows  not  the  same  room  for  the  operations  of  fancy;  but  I 
would  not  confine  my  observations  to  this  single  instance,  as 
other  specimens  which  are  extant  might  be  adduced  to  prove 
how  destitute  our  country  then  was  of  all  poetical  taste. 

The  author  whom  I  before  quoted — though  he  considers 
this  work  of  Layamon  as  exhibiting  a  sample  of  the  Saxon, 
at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  "  still  pure  and  unmixed, 
though  barbarous,"  is  disposed  to  allow,  from  the  peculiarities 
in  its  orthography,  that  the  pronunciation  of  the  language  had 
already  undergone  a  considerable  change ;  and  "  that  little 
more  than  the  substitution  of  a  few  French  words  was  neces- 
sary to  produce  the  Anglo-Norman,"  or  English  tongue, 
strictly  so  denominated.  Jt  seems,  therefore,  in  his  opinion, 
that  a  change  in  the  pronunciation,  and  the  addition  of  a  few 
foreign  words,  can  at  any  time  furnish  the  necessary  consti- 
tuents of  a  new  language! 

If  we  proceed  to  the  thirteenth  century,  which  immediately 
follows,  when  the  number  of  writers  increased,  and  when  the 
transition  of  the  Saxon  into  the  English  language  is  viewed  as 
complete,  I  think  that  we  shall  discover  no  improvement  in 
the  vein  of  poetry.  The  description  of  the  land  of  Cokaine, 
a  translation  also,  probably,  from  the  French,  presents  us  with 
a  satire  on  the  monastic  orders,  of  which,  notwithstanding  the 
vivacity  of  the  subject,  there  is  nothing  attractive  in  the  style, 
nor  interesting  in  the  imagery.  Take  an  example: — 

"  There  is  a  well-fair  abbey, 
Of  white  monkes,  and  of  grey ; 
There  beth  bowers,  and  halls, 
All  of  pasties  beth  the  walls, 


1200.]  RISE  OF  ENGLISH  POETRY.  269 

Of  flesh,  of  fish,  and  a  rich  meat, 
The  likefullest  that  man  may  eat, 
Flouren-cakes  beth  the  shingles  all 
Of  church,  cloister,  bowers,  and  hall. 
The  pinnes  (pinnacles)  beth  fat  puddings, 
Rich  meat  to  princes  and  kings. 
All  is  common  to  young  and  old, 
To  stout  and  stern,  young  and  old. 

Advancing  further  into  the  century,  we  come  to  Robert,  a 
monk  of  Gloucester,  who  compiled  in  more  than  thirteen 
thousand  rhymes  a  history  of  England,  from  the  days  of  the 
imaginary  Brutus  to  his  own.1  Here,  also,  Geoffrey  of  Mon- 
mouth  supplied  the  materials,  as  far  as  the  subject  would 
admit.  Of  this  poetical  history  the  historian  of  our  poetry 
thus  speaks.  "  This  rhyming  chronicle  is  totally  destitute  of 
art  or  imagination.  The  author  has  clothed  the  fables  of 
Geoffrey  in  rhyme,  which  often  have  a  more  poetical  air  in 
the  original.  The  language  is  full  of  Saxonisms."  The  coro- 
nation scene  of  Arthur,  which  Layamon  had  imitated,  is  here 
Driven  by  Robert,  and  should  be  compared  with  it  in  order  to 
show  the  progress  which  the  language  had  made.  The  poetry 
i.s  equally  cold,  and  rather  more  prosaic.  "Robert  of  Glouces- 
ter," says  Dr.  Johnson,  "who  is  placed  by  the  critics  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  seems  to  have  used  a  kind  of  intermediate 
diction,  neither  Saxon  nor  English;  in  his  work,  therefore,  we 
see  the  transition  exhibited."  Proceeding  in  his  comparison, 
the  reader  may  also  peruse  two  lyric  compositions,  one  moral, 
the  other  amatory;  neither  of  which  will,  in  his  estimation, 
enhance  the  value  of  our  early  English  poetry.2 

I  could  speak  of  the  French  poets  of  the  same  era,  whose 
number  is  said  to  have  been  more  than  a  hundred;  but  it 
seems  unnecessary.  Their  language  was  certainly  rather 
more  polished;  but  the  character  of  their  compositions  was 
tin1  same.  We  borrowed  our  subjects  from  them.  The  reader 
also  will  recollect  what  was  said  on  the  Trouveurs  and 
Troubadours. 

The  Germans,  from  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  had  also  been 

1    F.ilited  by  Heanir. 

-  Ilf  who  M>rks  for  further  information  may  turn  to  many  writers,  among 
whom  I  recommend  Wartou  on  our  poetry,  L>r.  Johnson's  Introduction, 
Tyrwhitt  on  (.'Iniucer,  and  the  author  of  Specimens  :  but  Wartou  merits 
particular  attention  :  sect.  i. 


270         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

improving  their  language,  chiefly  by  the  means  of  the  poets, 
called  Minnesingers ;  but  Latin  almost  universally  engrossed 
ah1  the  departments  of  science.  The  dialect  which  was  chiefly 
cultivated,  and  was  spoken  in  the  principal  courts,  was  that  of 
Suabia.  In  this  the  poets  wrote  and  sang  on  such  subjects  as 
accorded  with  the  chivalrous  taste  of  the  age.  They  differed 
not  from  those  of  France  and  England.1 

It  is  time  that  I  now  resume  the  subject  of  Latin  poetry, 
in  which,  perhaps,  we  and  our  contemporaries  on  the  continent 
will  be  found  to  have  preserved,  or  to  have  acquired,  a  more 
refined  and  classical  taste.  It  must  be  evident  that  the  harsh 
and  rugged  dialects  of  many  of  our  modern  tongues  could 
not  at  once  be  adapted  to  that  harmony  which  verse  requires; 
but  when  we  speak  of  Latin,  which  had  never  ceased  to  be 
studied  and  well  understood,  and  in  which  so  many  beautiful 
specimens  of  composition  were  to  be  found,  it  is  not  easy  to 
conceive,  notwithstanding  the  long  declension  of  general  lite- 
rature, the  moment  an  attempt  to  revive  it  should  be  made, 
or  any  votary  of  the  muses  should  begin  to  compose,  that  the 
style  of  versification  which  all  admired  would  not  alone  be 
imitated.  We  should  not  expect  to  find  the  excellencies  of 
the  Augustan,  or  of  a  less  perfect  era  of  Latinity;  but  we 
might  expect  at  least  some  imperfect  imitation  or  distant 
resemblance.  This  was  the  case  in  many  instances. 

In  Italy,  indeed,  the  historian2  states,  that  the  number  of 
Latin  poets  was  inconsiderable,  and  their  merit  not  great; 
and  he  accounts  for  the  paucity  by  observing,  that  the  new 
taste  for  modern  composition  in  the  Provencal  and  Italian 
tongues  had  antiquated  the  Latin  muse.  The  subjects  which 
they  chose,  which  were  sometimes  moral  but  more  often  his- 
torical, were  ill  adapted  to  poetry.  The  selection  proved  the 
want  of  taste  which  the  execution  more  evidently  confirmed; 
but  the  opinion  seemed  to  be  that  a  certain  measure  of  sylla- 
bles constituted  the  whole  poetic  art.3 

In  France,  at  the  same  time,  William  le  Breton  wrote  the 
life  of  Philip  Augustus,  and  the  physician  of  this  prince, 
Giles  de  Corbeil,  celebrated  the  virtues  of  pharmacy  in  no 
less  than  six  thousand  lines.  He  was  a  churchman,  as  all 
physicians  then  generally  were.  But  they  were  both  preceded 

1  Meusel's  Leitfaden,  passim.  2  Tirabosclii,  iv.  iii.  iv. 

3  See  Scrip.  Rer.  Ital.  passim. 


1200.]  MODERN  LATIN  POETRY.  271 

and  excelled,  it  is  said,  by  Gualtier  de  Chatillon,  in  his  Alexan- 
dreid,  a  poem  in  ten  books,  founded  on  the  history  of  Quintus 
Curtius,  and  which,  from  the  admiration  it  excited,  soon 
became  a  familiar  book  in  the  schools.1  I  have  not  seen 
these  poems  and  many  others  that  are  mentioned,  except  in 
extracts,  but  I  recollect  some  years  ago  to  have  read  with 
pleasure  a  poem  of  Gunther,  a  German  and  a  Cistercian  monk, 
on  the  events  of  the  reign  of  Frederic  Barbarossa,  particularly 
in  Liguria.  He  wrote  also,  in  prose,  a  history  of  the'capture 
of  Constantinople  by  the  Latins.  That  he  also  is  an  historian, 
rather  than  a  poet,  I  am  ready  to  admit,  but  still  we  find 
passages  Avhich  are  not  void  of  animation  and  elegance,  and 
our  early  critics  are  unanimous  in  their  applause.2 

When  we  turn  to  Britain,  after  Geoffrey  Vinesauf,  whom 
Leland  panegyrizes  to  excess,  and  who,  among  some  works  in 
prose,  wrote  a  metrical  didactic  essay  or  treatise,  entitled 
De  Nova  Poetria,  we  come  to  Joseph  of  Exeter,  called  Josephus 
Iscanus,  and  Alexander  Neckham.  But  of  Vinesauf  I  will  first 
observe  that  his  Essay,  which  prescribes  the  rules  of  oratorial 
and  poetical  composition,  and  was  probably  written  during 
hi*  residence  at  Rome,  is  dedicated  to  Innocent  III.,  whom  he 
thus  addresses,  playing  on  his  name: 

"  Papa  stupor  mundi !  si  dixero  Papa  Nocenti, 
Acephalum  nomen  tribuam  tibi,  si  caput  addam, 
Hostis  erit  nomen  metri ;  tibi  vult  similari. 
Nee  nomen  metro,  nee  vult  tua  maxima  virtus 
Claudi  mensura;  nihil  est  quo  metiar  illam. 
Transit  mensuras  hominum.     Sed  divide  nomen, 
Divide  sic  nomen.     In  pracfer,  et  adde  Nocenti, 
Efficiturque  comes  metri  sic,  et  tua  virtus 
Pluribus  tcquatur  divisa,  sed  integra  nulli."  3 

Of  Joseph  of  Exeter,  styled  by  Warton  "  the  miracle  of 
his  age  in  classical  composition,"  Leland  thus  speaks:4  "  No 
one  can  be  offended  if  I  call  him  the  first  poet  of  his  age. 
His  eloquence,  indeed  the  majesty  of  his  style  and  his  erudi- 
tion are  such,  that  I  can  never  sufficiently  wonder  how, 
among  men  so  rude  and  barbarous,  numbers  so  terse  and  ele- 

1  See  Hist,  of  Engl.  Poet.  Dissert,  ii. 

2  See  Cave's  Hist.  Literar.  Fabric.  Bib.  Lat.  mecl.  jetat.  ii. 

1   .More  niiiy  lie  seen,  as  quoted  from  MSS.  by  Selden,  Prsef.  ad  x.  Scrip. 
4  De  Scrip.  Brit. 


272         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

gant  could  have  been  formed."  He  lived  through  a  great  part 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  was  the  author  of  two  heroic 
poems,  one  on  the  Trojan  War,  imitated  rather  than  translated 
from  the  Greek  of  Dares  Phrygius;  the  other  on  the  War 
ofAntioch,  or  the  third  crusade  under  Richard.  The  former  has 
been  published,  and  with  such  an  impression  of  its  classical 
merit  as  to  have  been  supposed  to  be  the  work  of  the  Roman, 
Cornelius  Nepos.  As  far  as  a  judgment  can  be  formed  from 
extracts,  it  is  certainly  possessed  of  many  beauties.  "  The 
diction  of  this  poem,"  says  Warton,1  "  is  generally  pure, 
the  periods  round,  and  the  numbers  harmonious,  and,  on  the 
whole,  the  structure  of  the  versification  approaches  nearly  to 
that  of  polished  Latin  poetry.  The  writer  appears  to  have 
possessed  no  common  command  of  poetical  phraseology,  and 
wanted  nothing  but  a  knowledge  of  the  Virgilian  chastity. 
His  style  is  a  mixture  of  Ovid,  Statins,  and  Claudian,  who 
seem  then  to  have  been  the  popular  patterns."  Speaking  of 
the  view  of  his  second  work,  of  which  only  a  fragment  re- 
mains, the  poet  elegantly  addresses  Baldwin,  the 'archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  to  whom  the  Trojan  War  is  dedicated: 

"  Altera  sacrae 

Tendo  fila  lyroe ;  plectro  majore  canenda, 
Antiochi  me  bella  vocant :  nunc  dicere  votum  est 
Christicolas  acies,  et  nostrss  signa  Sibyllae. 
Quac  virtus,  quae  dona  crucis ;  nee  fundit  anhela 
Hos  mihi  Cyrrha  pedes,  animi  fidentis  hiatum 
Celsior  e  ccelo  venit  impleturus  Apollo. 
Tu  quoque,  magne  pater,  nostri  fiducia  ctepti 
Altera,  et  in  pelago  pandens  mihi  vela  secundo, 
Hoc  tibi  ludit  opus:  succedit  serior  aetas, 
Seria  succedunt  aures  meritura  pudicas; 
Si  tuus  in  nostros  candor  consenserit  ausus, 
Kon  metuam  culicis  stimulos,  fucique  susurrum. 

Alexander  Neckham,  the  friend  and  correspondent  of  Peter 
de  Blois,  if  fairly  appreciated,  should  take  his  place  rather 
among  the  general  scholars  than  the  Latin  poets,  though  in 
this  line  he  has  left  specimens  of  an  elegant  taste.  His  prin- 
cipal work  is  a  Latin  poem,  in  seven  books,  on  the  praise  of 
Divine  wisdom,  in  the  introduction  to  which  are  those  pleasing 
elegiac  lines  in  which  he  commemorates  the  innocent 

1  Dissert,  ii. 


1200.]  INTRODUCTION  OF  RHYMES.  273 

pleasures  of  his  early  days,  which  were  passed  among  the 
monks  of  St.  Alban's,  where  he  was  born  and  educated. 

•'  Hie  locus  actatis  nostrce  primordia  novit, 

Aunos  felices,  laetitiaeque  dies : 
Hie  locus  iagens  pueriles  imbuit  annos 
Artibus,  et  nostrae  laudis  origo  fuit." 

"We  afterwards  read  of  his  visiting  Italy,  and,  as  the  fashion 
was,  of  frequenting  the  schools  of  France.  He  returned  a 
finished  scholar,  wrote  on  a  variety  of  subjects,  and  died 
abbot  of  a  convent  of  regular  canons  at  Exeter,  about  the 
year  1227.1 

Judging  from  the  abilities  of  the  writers  whom  we  have 
mentioned,  we  may  be  permitted  to  conclude  that  some  pro- 
gress had  been  made  in  Latin  poetry,  but  the  subject  pre- 
sents, at  the  same  time,  another  aspect,  which  is  rude  and 
uninviting.  I  allude  to  the  art  of  rhyming,  which  was  now 
become,'  by  a  strange  perversion  of  taste,  the  standard  of 
poetical  excellence. 

Whether  rhymes  were  introduced  into  Latin  verse  by  one 
Leo  or  Leoninus,  who  lived  in  the  twelfth  century,  or  by 
some  earlier  or  later  writer,  cannot  be  ascertained.2  But  it 
is  certain  that  this  change  took  place  when  the  language  had 
ceased  to  be  generally  read,  and  the  ear,  vitiated  by  the  rugged 
sounds  of  the  modern  dialects,  had  lost  all  relish  for  the 
harmonious  simplicity  of  its  prosody.  Metre  of  some  sort, 
which  has  been  called  rhythm  or  measured  motion,  was  found 
necessary,  without  which  no  verse  could  be  distinguished ;  and 
as  this  might  not  always  be  deemed  sufficient  to  mark  the 
measure  of  the  line,  recourse  was  had  to  rhyme,  or  to  the  ter- 
mination of  verses  by  a  similar  sound.  The  ear  was  thus 
flattered  by  a  certain  musical  desinence,  nor  could  it  a  moment 
doubt  where  every  verse  closed.  I  do  not  pretend  to  deter- 
mine whether  the  rhythm,  in  the  change  which  the  language 
has  undergone,  could  have  been  equally  well  marked  by 
the  ancient  syllabic  quantity.  But  rhyme  appears  to  have 
owed  its  origin  to  some  feeling  of  its  expediency;  and  it 
can  hardly  be  doubted  that  it  was  first  introduced  in  the 
metrical  compositions  of  some  modern  tongue.  It  is  not  pro- 
BM  Cave  and  J.eland,  also  Hist,  of  Eng.  Poet. 
-  See  on  this  subject  a  curious  note  in  "\Yr.rton,  Dissert,  ii. 

T 


274  LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  [A.D. 

bable  that  it  would  have  been  first  attempted  in  Latin,  in 
which  there  was  no  example,  and  of  which  the  prosody  had 
been  so  long  established. 

But  when  rhyme  had  obtained  admission  into  modern 
tongues,  and  it  had  acquired  peculiar  celebrity  and  general 
approbation  in  the  compositions  of  the  Trouveurs  and  Trou- 
badours, we  readily  conceive  how  eager  a  monkish  versifier 
might  be  to  confer  an  ornament  on  the  Latin  language  which 
he  had  learned  to  admire  in  his  own.  His  delicacy  of  percep- 
tion was  not  such  as  to  enable  him  to  discriminate  whether 
this  embellishment  was  congenial  with  the  dignity  of  the 
Roman  idiom.  And  whatever  might  be  his  sensibility  on 
this  subject,  he  knew  what  was  of  more  immediate  importance 
to  him,  that  the  use  of  rhyme  in  his  compositions  would  not 
fail  to  recommend  them  to  more  general  notice.  And  when 
the  rhyming  process  had  begun,  what  was  likely  to  circum- 
scribe its  use  or  set  any  boundary  to  its  application?  We 
have  rhymes  which  conclude  the  verse  in  the  various  measures 
of  composition  :  in  others,  besides  this  common  termination, 
the  middle  of  each  verse  is  made  to  rhyme  with  its  end:  and 
in  a  third  sort,  no  fewer  than  three  rhymes  enter  into  each 
verse,  two  within  the  verse  itself,  and  one  referring  to  the 
succeeding  line. 

"  Qui  regis  omnia,  pelle  tot  crimina,  surge,  perimus, 
Nos,  Deus,  aspice,  ne  sine  simplice  lumine  simus." 

Should  it  be  said  that,  by  the  ancient  Latin  poets,  the  first 
in  classical  rank,  rhymes  were  sometimes  introduced — my 
answer  is,  that  they  occurred  from  accident,  or  were  employed 
for  the  sake  of  alliteration;  whereas  with  these  poetasters 
they  were  the  result  of  elaborate  design.  Toil  in  trifles  is 
intellectual  degradation:  and  how  toilsome  must  the  labour 
have  been,  when  the  utmost  complexity  of  rhyming  was  used. 
Bernardus  Morlanensis,  a  monk  of  these  times,  composed  no 
less  than  three  books  in  the  triple  rhyme,  of  which  I  have 
just  furnished  a  specimen. 

Those  who  have  early  imbibed  a  just  taste  for  the  classical 
beauties  of  ancient  poesy,  could  never  be  brought  to  admire, 
what  so  much  excited  the  commendation  of  our  ancestors,  the 
rhyming  cadence  in  Latin  or  in  Greek  composition.  What 
is  it  then  which  in  modern  languages  has  reconciled  it  to  the 
ear  ?  Not,  I  suspect,  any  peculiar  harmony  in  the  rhyme,  or 


1200.]  GRAMMAR  AND  RHETORIC.  275 

aptitude  in  these  languages  to  admit  it,  but  the  operation  of 
use  and  habit  alone.  "Without  imputing  the  effect  to  habit,  I 
can  discover  nothing  in  modern  versification  which  should 
cause  rhyme  to  be  more  grateful  to  the  ear  than-in  the  monkish 
rhymes.  The  sounds  are  similar;  and  had  no  great  names, 
within  the  lapse  of  a  certain  period,  given  currency  and 
vogue  to  the  former,  we  should  probably  have  thought  both 
kinds  equally  insipid  and  inharmonious.  Virgil  is  a  check  to 
Latin  rhyme,  whilst  the  elegant  productions  of  Pope  recom- 
mend it  in  English;  though  use  had  previously  prepared  the 
judgment  for  its  approbation.  This  theory  may  be  contro- 
verted: but  it  will  not  be  denied  that,  as  the  rhyming  art 
commenced  in  the  rude  infancy  of  our  languages,  it  could  not 
claim  any  preference  from  critical  taste;  and  that  it  was,  at 
least,  barbarous  in  its  origin. 

After  all  that  has  been  said  on  the  principal  heads  of  litera- 
ture, and  the  circumstances  connected  with  them,  it  would  be 
a  loss  of  time  to  detain  the  reader  with  any  account  of  the 
state  of  grammar  or  rhetoric ;  though  some  writers  have  made 
them  a  part  of  their  plan.1  As  grammar  professes  to  teach 
the  first  elements  of  language,  and  rhetoric  to  lay  down  the 
rules  of  composition,  if  I  had  found  anything  worth  record- 
ing in  my  general  view,  its  place  must  obviously  have  been 
before,  not  after  the  enumeration  of  other  subjects.  To  these 
they  lead  the  way.  When  so  many  schools  and  universities 
had  been  opened  in  all  countries,  professors  would  be  ready 
to  fill  the  chairs;  and  as  Latin  sunk  daily  more  and  more  into 
a  dead  language,  though  it  kept  possession  of  the  avenues  to 
science,  introductory  lessons  were  peculiarly  indispensable. 
But  the  art  of  writing  remained  imperfect;  and  the  speci- 
mens which  I  have  read  of  the  eloquence  of  the  age  were 
equally  void  of  taste.  A  professor  of  the  art  thus  begins  his 
treatise:  "  If  the  high-thundering  Redeemer  of  mankind  had 
bestowed  on  me  a  hundred  iron  tongues,  the  sky  were  changed 
into  a  sheet  of  paper,  the  sea  into  ink,  and  my  hand  could 
move  as  rapidly  as  the  running  hare,  it  would  not  be  in  my 
power  fully  to  explain  to  you  the  excellence  of  the  oratorial 
art.  But  I,  its  lowly  teacher,  have  drawn  this  little  tract 
from  the  secret  recesses  of  my  mind,  and  strewed  it  over  with 
the  flowers  of  eloquence."  A  better  mean,  however,  than 

1  See  Tirabosclii,  Storia  della  Letter.  Ital.  iv.  iii.  5. 

T2 


276    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1200. 

what  this  writer  could  have  devised  for  the  improvement  of 
his  art,  were  two  translations  into  the  Italian  tongue  of 
Cicero's  treatise  De  Inventione,  one  by  a  professor  of  Bologna 
— almost  the  -first  work  which  had  appeared  in  prose — the 
other  by  Brunetto  Latini.1 

Brunetto  was  a  Florentine,  and,  according  to  the  accounts 
of  his  biographers,  a  scholar  who,  by  his  various  elegant 
attainments,  contributed  to  illustrate  the  close  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  The  Italian  language  was  under  many  obligations 
to  his  taste;  as  was  also  that  of  France,  in  which  country  he 
resided  many  years.  Speaking  of  a  work  which  he  composed 
in  French,  and  entitled  the  Treasure,  he  says,  "  Should  it 
be  asked,  being  myself  an  Italian,  why  I  have  chosen  to  write 
in  a  foreign  tongue?  my  answer  is — first,  because  I  now  am 
in  France;  and  secondly,  because  the  language  of  this  country 
is  more  pleasing  and  more  generally  spoken  than  any  other." 
To  his  translation  of  the  Treatise  of  Cicero,  he  added  that  of 
some  of  his  orations,  and  wrote  a  comment  on  the  first.  But 
in  the  minds  of  all  Italians,  a  single  circumstance  in  the  life 
of  Brunetto  eclipses  every  other  topic  of  praise.  They  pre- 
tend that  Dante  was  his  scholar.2 

The  following  observations,  applicable  not  to  Italy  alone, 
but  to  the  other  countries  of  Europe,  may  serve  to  terminate 
the  subject.  From  the  general  tendency  to  improvement,  and 
the  means  so  amply  supplied,  greater  effects  might  have  been 
expected  than  those  which  we  have  seen.  As  yet  we  had  no 
elegant  writers,  but  progress  had  been  made.  Some  know- 
ledge of  ancient  models  was  acquired,  which  were  soon  likely 
to  lead  to  a  closer  imitation.  The  Latin  language  as  written 
by  them  was  less  rude,  and  the  modern  tongues  were 
evidently  advanced.  General  science  meanwhile  took  a 
wider  range  ;  discoveries  in  philosophy  were  made  ;  the 
powers  of  intellect  were  exercised;  and  the  arts,  particularly 
the  art  of  architecture,  exhibited  in  the  construction  of 
churches  many  celebrated  specimens.  Painting  also  was 
revived  under  the  hand  of  the  Florentine  Cimabue.  The 
fourteenth  century  opened.3 

1  Tiraboschi,  ut  supra.  2  ifcij. 

3  Ibid.     Also  Vasari,  Vite  de'  Pittori,  i. 


BOOK    VI. 


STATE  OF  LEARNING  FROM  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  FOUR- 
TEENTH CENTURY  TO  THE  INVENTION  OF  THE  ART  OP 
PRINTING,  ABOUT  THE  YEAR  1450. 


The  fourteenth  century — The  poet  Dante — State  of  Italy — Petrarca — His 
researches  after  the  works  of  the  ancients — Character  of  his  writings — 
Boccaccio — Coluccio  Salutato— The  learning  of  other  countries — Duns 
Scotus — John  Wicklift' — Geoffrey  Chaucer — His  acquirements  compared 
with  those  of  others — And  his  success  with  that  of  Petrarca  and  Boc- 
caccio— French  literature — Froissard — Spanish  and  German  :  why  sta- 
tionary— Fifteenth  century :  General  view  of  Italy — Council  of  Con- 
stance— Martin  V. — Councils  of  Basil  and  Florence — Nicholas  V. — 
The  enthusiasm  of  many  Italians  in  quest  of  Latin  authors — Progress 
of  the  Greek  language — Cardinal  Bessarion — Various  professors — Greek 
works — Gianozzi  Mauetti — Cultivated  state  of  the  Latin  language — 
State  of  other  countries — Oxford  and  Cambridge — Antiquarian  re- 
searches— What  obstacles  still  remained — The  art  of  printing  discovered. 

As  Italy,  before  many  years  shall  be  elapsed,  will  be  the 
country  where  a  just  taste  for  elegant  literature  will  first 
appear,  I  might  now,  perhaps,  be  allowed  to  pursue  a  different 
course — and  leaving  the  philosophers,  the  historians,  the 
poets,  and  the  general  scholars  of  other  regions— confine  my 
researches  to  that  more  productive  soil.  But  though  I  am 
aware,  compared  with  the  rapid  progress  of  the  intellect  and 
the  language  of  Italy,  how  little  interest  there  is  in  every  other 
view,  and  how  much  delay  there  is  in  every  step  towards  im- 
provement, something  may  yet  present  itself  which  should 
not  be  left  unnoticed,  or  which,  if  not  recorded,  would  cause  a 
chasm  in  the  general  subject.  The  condition  of  other  coun- 
tries must  not,  therefore,  be  wholly  neglected,  though  it  may 
afford  little  which  is  new.  We  have  seen  that  the  method  of 


278         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1300 

philosophising  was  fixed,  as  were  the  other  academic  exercises, 
whether  in  colleges,  or  schools,  or  other  seminaries  ;  the 
modern  languages,  and  the  studies  connected  with  them,  were 
alone  progressive. 

Dante  degli  Alighieri  was  now  advancing  to  the  zenith  of 
his  literary  glory.  He  was  born  at  Florence  in  the  year 
1265,  where  he  studied,  as  well  as  in  other  cities  of  Italy, 
collecting  from  all  quarters,  and  even  it  is  said  from  the  uni- 
versities of  Paris  and  Oxford,  whatever  was  deemed  most 
excellent  in  philosophy,  theology,  and  the  liberal  arts.  On 
his  return  to  his  own  city  he  was  employed  in  many  honour- 
able offices.  The  cultivation  of  the  Italian  tongue,  which 
was  yet  rude  and  inharmonious,  but  which  the  muses  were 
now  about  to  adopt  as  their  own,  had  deeply  engaged  his 
attention.  Thus  was  Dante  occupied,  when  in  1302,  in  one 
of  those  civil  commotions  to  which  the  free  cities  of  Italy 
were  at  this  time  daily  exposed,  the  party  which  he  had 
espoused  was  vanquished  by  its  antagonists,  and  he  was  him- 
self forced  into  exile.  To  Florence  he  never  returned,  but 
the  cities  of  Italy  continued  to  afford  him  an  asylum;  the 
regrets  of  banishment,  which  he  felt  with  the  keenest  severity, 
did  not  however  suspend  his  literary  ardour.  He  died  at 
Ravenna  in  1321. 

The  works  of  Dante  on  various  subjects,  in  prose  and 
verse,  some  of  which  were  composed  in  Italian  and  others  in 
Latin,  may  be  considered  as  almost  absorbed  in  the  renown 
of  that  to  which  his  admiring  countrymen  have  affixed  the 
lofty  title  of  the  Divina  Commedia.  They,  indeed,  can  be 
the  only  judges  of  its  merit.  At  what  period  of  the  poet's 
life,  or  where  it  was  written,  or  begun  to  be  written,  is  un- 
certain; and  the  cities  of  Italy  contend  as  eagerly  for  the 
honour  of  each  canto,  as  those  of  Greece  once  did  for  that  of 
Homer's  nativity.  The  poem,  as  every  scholar  knows,  con- 
tains the  description  of  a  vision,  in  Avhich,  with  Virgil  some- 
times for  his  guide,  the  poet  is  conducted  through  hell,  and 
purgatory,  and  paradise,  and  indulged  with  the  sight  and 
conversation  of  various  persons.  It  is  evident  that  the  sixth 
book  of  the  .^Eneis  suggested  the  general  outline,  and  how- 
ever inferior  the  modern  poet  of  Italy  may  be  thought  to  his 
great  prototype,  it  is  with  peculiar  pleasure  we  peruse  the 
following  lines,  which  at  once  show  that  the  bard  of  Mantua, 
after  the  long  lapse  of  ages  of  tasteless  ignorance,  had  found 


TO  1450.]  DANTE.  279 

a  reader  who  could  admire  and  rival  his  beauties.     Art  thou 
Virgil  ?  he  asks  on  his  first  presenting  himself  to  his  view: 

"  Oh  degli  altri  poeti  onore,  e  lume, 

Vagliami ']  lungo  studio,  e'l  grande  amore, 

Che  m'han  fatto  cercar  lo  tuo  volume. 

Tu  se'  lo  mio  maestro,  e'l  mio  autore; 
Tu  se  solo  colui,  da  cu'  io  tolsi 
Lo  bello  stile,  che  m'ha  fatto  onore."1 

The  Italians  allow  that  this  work  of  Dante  is  not  a  regular 
composition ;  that  it  abounds  with  wild  and  extravagant  pas- 
3;  that  his  images  are  often  unnatural;  that  he  makes 
Virgil  utter  the  most  absurd  remarks;  that  some  whole  cantos 
cannot  be  read  with  patience;  that  his  verses  are  frequently 
unsufFerably  harsh,  and  his  rhymes  void  of  euphony;  and,  in. 
one  word,  that  his  defects,  which  no  man  of  common  judg- 
ment will  pretend  to  justify,  are  not  few  nor  trifling.  But 
whatever  may  be  the  sum  of  his  imperfections  or  the  number 
of  his  faults,  they  are  amply  compensated  by  the  highest 
beauties;  by  an  imagination  of  the  richest  kind;  a  style  sub- 
lime, pathetic,  animated;  by  delineations  the  most  powerfully 
impressive;  a  tone  of  invective  withering,  irresistible,  and 
indignant;  and  by  passages  of  the  most  exquisite  tenderness. 
The  story  of  count  Ugolino  and  his  children,  than  which  the 
genius  of  man  never  produced  a  more  pathetic  picture,  would 
alone  prove  that  the  Muses  were  returned  to  the  soil  of 
Latium.2  When  it  is,  besides,  considered  that  the  Italian 
poetry  had  hitherto  been  merely  an  assemblage  of  rhymed 
phrases,  on  love  or  some  moral  topic,  without  being  animated 
by  a  single  spark  of  genius,  our  admiration  of  Dante  must  be 
proportionally  increased.  Inspired  as  it  were  by  him  whose 
volume  he  says  he  had  sought,  and  whom  he  calls  his  master, 
he  rose  to  the  heights  of  real  poesy,  spoke  of  things  not 
within  the  reach  of  common  minds,  poured  life  into  inanimate 
nature,  and  all  this  in  a  strain  of  language  to  which  as  yet  no 
ear  had  listened.3 

1    Ii.-ll'  Inferno,  i. 

-   I  Mil.  xxxiii.     "  Perhaps  the  Inferno  of  Dante  is  the  next  composition 

to  the  Iliad,  in   point  of  originality  inid  sublimity.1'      Kssuy  on  the  Genius 
&c.  of  Pope.  -jOli. 

3  See  Sioriii  dclhi  Let.  hid.  vi.  iii.  ^!;  also  the  Observations  prefixed  to 

the  editions  of  the  poem. 


280         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF   THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1300 

Among  the  various  attractions  which  I  have  enumerated, 
and  to  which  may  be  added  the  rich  colouring  with  which 
the  poet  had  the  skill  to  invest  all  the  arts  and  literature  of 
the  age,  as  they  make  their  appearance  in  his  work,  I  ought 
to  state  that  the  many  living,  or  at  that  time  well-known  cha- 
racters, whom  he  brought  forward,  and  whose  good  and  bad 
deeds  he  tells  without  reserve,  greatly  augmented  the  interest 
of  his  work,  and  rendered  it  a  feast  for  the  censorious  or 
malevolent. 

Scarcely  had  this  poem  seen  the  light,  Avhen  the  public 
mind  was  seized  as  if  by  a  charm.  Copies  were  multiplied, 
and  comments  written,  within  the  course  of  a  few  years. 
Even  chairs  with  honourable  stipends  were  founded  in  Flo- 
rence, Bologna,  Pisa,  Venice,  and  Piacenza,  whence  able 
professors  delivered  lectures  on  the  divina  commedia  to  an 
admiring  audience.  They  did  not  always  display  its  beauties 
nor  elucidate  its  obscurities,  but  under  the  mistaken  convic- 
tion that  it  abounded  with  allegories  and  mystic  meanings, 
they  dwelt  too  much  on  these,  and  thus  they  often  occasioned 
darkness  rather  than  diffused  light.1  But  the  general  ardour 
at  least  evinces  what  the  example  of  a  single  man  was  able  to 
effect,  and  that  the  groundwork  of  a  better  taste  was  already 
laid. 

Divided  as  the  Italian  provinces  were,  particularly  towards 
the  north,  into  various  independent  little  states,  a  spirit  of 
rivalry  prevailed  which  often  caused,  indeed,  strife  and  blood- 
shed, but  which  also  excited  a  desire  to  excel  in  arts  as  well 
as  in  arms,  and  the  ambition  of  conquest  was  not  always 
exceeded  by  the  thirst  for  learning.  We  read  at  this  time, 
not  only  of  Robert,  king  of  Naples,  the  master  of  an  exten- 
sive territory,  himself  a  votary  of  the  Muses,  and  the  muni- 
ficent protector  of  letters,  but  likewise  of  the  Scaligeri  at 
Verona,  of  the  Carraresi  at  Padua,  of  the  Estensi  at  Ferrara, 
of  the  Visconti  at  Milan,  of  the  Gonzaghi  at  Mantua,  and  of 
other  princes  and  chiefs  of  noble  houses,  who  expended  their 
wealth  on  the  interests  of  literature,  and  lavished  their  favours 
on  its  professors.  "  I  know  not,"  says  the  historian,2  "  whether 
in  any  former  age  so  many  and  such  splendid  instances  of 


1  See  Storia  della  Let.  Ital.  vi.  iii.  2;  also  the  Observations  prefixed  to 
the  editions  of  the  poem. 

-  Storia  della  Let.  Ital.  v.  i.  2. 


TO   1450.]  PETRARCA.  281 

patronage  could  be  found."  Even  private  individuals  vied 
with  their  superiors.  New  schools  and  new  universities  were 
established,  while  those  which  had  been  already  founded, 
though  sometimes  disturbed  by  contending  factions,  and  agi- 
tated by  the  din  of  arms,  were  honoured  with  fresh  privileges 
and  other  marks  of  favour  and  distinction. 

The  mind  reposes  with  delight  upon  a  prospect  which  opens 
with  so  many  objects  of  interest,  but  it  is  soon  led  to  inquire 
what  at  this  time  was  the  state  of  Rome,  and  how  her  bishops 
were  employed,  while  the  princes  of  Italy  whose  names  have 
been  mentioned  contended  for  an  honourable  superiority  in 
the  patronage  of  letters.  Rome  had  remained  a  prey  to  re- 
peated outrages  and  tumults;  and  in  1309,  Clement  V.,  a 
Frenchman,  who  had  been  lately  raised  to  the  chair,  trans- 
ferred his  seat  to  Avignon.  "What  the  Italians  have  empha- 
tically styled  the  seventy  years  of  Babylonish  captivity  now 
commenced;  and  from  the  expression  alone  we  may  infer  how 
fatal  this  absence  of  the  popes  from  their  capital  was  to  the 
general  interests  of  Rome,  and  to  none  more  than  to  those 
of  literature  and  science.  Discord  prevailed  within  the  walls, 
the  pursuits  of  peace  were  neglected,  and  the  blood  of  her 
citizens  was  often  spilt.1 

Contemporary  with  Dante  in  the  different  departments  of 
learning  were  men  of  no  mean  acquirements,  whose  names 
and  works  are  recorded;2  but  neither  on  them  nor  their 
works  do  the  Italian  writers  love  to  dwell,  only  as  they  may 
seem  to  be  connected  with,  or  to  introduce  him  to  whose 
literary  exertions  their  own  country,  and  through  it  the  whole 
western  world,  became  deeply  indebted.  It  will  here  be 
obvious  to  every  reader  at  all  versed  in  literary  history, 
that  I  am  alluding  to  Francesco  Petrarca,  that  diligent  and 
laborious  collector  of  the  works  of  the  ancients,  who  rescued 
his  country's  name  from  obscurity,  and  rendered  it  the  admi- 
ration of  Europe;  who  sought  the  society  of  learned  foreigners, 
and  was  among  the  first  to  promote  the  cultivation  of  the 
Greek  tongue;  who,  himself  a  philosopher,  historian,  orator, 
poet,  and  philologist,  encouraged  by  his  example  every  liberal 
pursuit.  He  was  courted  by  the  princes  of  the  age,  and  he 
obtained  for  science  and  its  professors  their  patronage  and 
regard.  The  envied  excellence  to  which  he  raised  the  poetry 

1  Annul,  d'ltal.  passim.  •  Storiti  della  Let.  Ital.  v.  vi. 


282          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1300 

of  Italy,  while  the  best  specimens  of  the  art  in  other  countries 
had  a  rude  and  barbarous  appearance,  constitute  the  basis  of 
his  highest  praise;  but  it  is  contended  that  if  he  never  had 
written  a  verse,  Italy  must  still  have  viewed  him  as  an  object 
of  her  warmest  admiration.  It  is  said  that  in  some  of  the 
departments  of  literature  a  more  learned  scholar  might  be 
found,  but  we  can  nowhere  discover  an  individual,  to  whom. 
more  justly  belongs  the  title  of  the  restorer  and  father  of 
Italian  literature.1 

Petrarca  was  born  in  Arezzo,  a  city  of  Tuscany,  in  1304, 
and  when  no  more  than  nine  years  old  was  taken  to  Avignon, 
which  had  now  become  the  residence  of  the  Roman  bishops, 
in  which  situation,  and  in  the  neighbouring  town  of  Carpentras, 
he  completed  the  usual  course  of  studies,  comprising  grammar, 
rhetoric,  and  dialectics.  He  applied  to  civil  jurisprudence  in 
Montpellier,  and  also  in  Bologna;  the  jejune  study  of  which, 
however — though  he  professed  to  admire  it  as  connected 
with  the  noble  antiquities  of  Rome — was  often  interrupted  by 
the  perusal  of  the  works  of  Cicero  or  of  Virgil.  He  returned 
to  Avignon  in  his  twenty-second  year.  At  this  time  he  lost 
his  parents,  and  was  rather  distressed  in  his  circumstances, 
when,  in  conjunction  with  his  brother,  he  put  on  the  clerical 
habit;  and  finding  powerful  protectors  in  the  illustrious  house 
of  Colonna,  was  enabled  by  their  kindness  to  indulge  his 
favourite  pursuits,  whether  of  vanity,  of  literature,  or  of  love. 
The  object  of  his  passion  was  the  celebrated  Laura,  whom  he 
saw  for  the  first  time  in  1327,  the  year  after  his  return  to 
Avignon.  The  affectionate  attachment  of  Petrarca  to  Laura 
has  been  immortalized  by  the  many  beautiful  sonnets  which 
it  caused  him  to  write,  by  which  his  countrymen  have  never 
ceased  to  be  enraptured,  and  which  have  operated  as  a  sort 
of  seductive  charm  in  all  countries  in  Avhich  the  Italian 
language  is  read.  These  sonnets  added  greatly  to  the  polish, 
elegance,  and  harmony  of  the  language  of  Italy;  which  was 
almost  instantaneously  matured  into  perfection,  whilst  the 
vernacular  tongues  of  other  nations  were  still  awkward  in 
structure  and  dissonant  in  sound.  In  order  to  mitigate  his 
vexations  or  to  dissipate  his  regrets,  and  to  improve  his  mind 
by  the  view  of  different  objects  and  by  the  conversation  of 
the  learned,  he  now  travelled  through  France  and  some  parts 

1  Storia  della  Let.  Ital.  vi.  iii.  2. 


TO  1450.]  PETRARCA.  283 

of  Germany.  He  afterwards  visited  Rome,  which  to  him 
was  a  scene  of  sublime  contemplations;  and  when  his  troubled 
thoughts  could  still  find  no  repose,  he  retired,  in  1337,  to 
Vaucluse.  Many  of  his  works  in  Latin  and  Italian,  in  verse 
and  prose,  were  written  in  this  delightful  solitude;  and  here 
he  began  his  poem  entitled  Africa,  or  the  Achievements  of 
Scipio  Africanus,  which  was  not  completed  till  a  much  later 
period. 

The  taste  for  poetry  and  elegant  composition — for  which 
the  public  mind  had  been  prepared  by  the  writings  of  Dante 
— ascended  to  a  pitch  of  enthusiastic  admiration  when  the 
works  of  Petrarca  appeared.  Their  style,  and  particularly 
that  of  his  Latin  compositions,  was  far  removed  from  classical 
perfection;  but  men  judged  by  comparison,  and  compared 
with  the  low  standard  of  his  predecessors  the  hermit  of  Vau- 
cluse seemed  to  them  something  more  than  mortal.  He  was 
complimented  by  the  Maecenas  of  the  age,  Robert,  king  of 
Naples,  and  by  a  singular  coincidence  received  letters  on 
the  same  day  from  the  Roman  senate  and  the  university  of 
Paris,  in  which  he  was  earnestly  solicited  to  honour  their 
cities  with  his  presence  that  they  might  present  him  with  the 
crown  of  laurel  which  his  literary  labours  had  so  justly 
merited.  This  ceremony  had  been  formerly  practised  in 
Greece,  and  afterwards  in  the  capitoline  games  at  Rome;  but 
as  the  literary  spirit  became  torpid,  it  fell  into  disuse.  The 
poet  embraced  the  invitation  with  rapturous  promptitude; 
and  though  he  might  appear  for  a  short  time  to  hesitate,  it 
was  plain  what  his  choice  would  be.  He  had  looked  with 
ardent  solicitude  to  the  revival  of  Roman  greatness,  with 
which,  as  a  first  step,  he  might  perhaps  connect  his  coronation 
in  the  capitol!  He  resolved  to  repair  to  Rome;  but  that  the 
distinguished  honour  might  seem  a  well-earned  tribute  to 
merit,  he  first  visited  the  Neapolitan  monarch,  conversed  with 
him  on  subjects  of  literature,  inspired  him  with  a  higher 
ardour  in  their  pursuit,  and  in  his  presence,  and  in  that  of 
his  court,  submitted  during  three  days  to  a  public  examination. 
From  Naples  he  proceeded  to  Rome,  where  he  was  crowned 
on  Easter  day,  in  the  year  1341,  with  those  ceremonious 
solemnities  which  his  historians  have  minutely  detailed. 

This  ceremony  was  not  entirely  without  its  effects  upon 
the  interests  of  literature.  By  contributing  to  excite  a  vivid 
recollection  of  former  days,  it  led  the  mind  to  inquire  the 


284         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1300 

persons  who  had  thus  been  previously  honoured,  when  they 
found  that  the  honour  had  been  conferred  not  only  on  victo- 
rious commanders  of  armies,  but  on  those  who,  in  the  retired 
walks  of  life,  had  acquired  renown  by  intellectual  exertion. 
It  seemed  to  indicate  that  the  spirit  of  those  times  was  return- 
ing, that  the  gates  of  the  Roman  capitol  were  thrown  open 
to  a  private  votary  of  the  Muses,  and  that  the  crown  of 
Petrarca,  with  all  its  attendant  applause,  might  be  the  reward 
of  every  citizen  who  should  successfully  emulate  his  literary 
fame. 

After  quitting  Rome,  the  poet  spent  some  months  at  Parma, 
the  lords  of  which  city  were  his  particular  admirers,  when  he 
once  more  returned  to  the  banks  of  the  Rhone.  In  1343  AVC 
again  find  him  at  Naples,  and  subsequently  at  Parma,  and  in 
other  cities  of  Italy,  where  he  contributed  by  his  conversation 
and  his  writings  to  disperse  the  seeds  of  science  and  to  pro- 
mote their  vigorous  cultivation.  When  he  revisited  France  it 
was  the  end  of  the  year  1345.  Clement  VI.  at  this  time  filled 
the  papal  chair,  who  himself  was  among  the  admirers  of  the 
poet.  The  year  1347  was  remarkable  for  the  wild  attempt  of 
Rienzo  to  restore  liberty  to  Rome.  Petrarca  contemplated 
this  rash  enterprise  as  the  deed  of  a  hero,  from  which  he 
augured  the  return  of  an  auspicious  and  splendid  era;  but  a 
very  different  event  soon  blasted  these  florid  hopes.  In  the 
following  year,  whilst  he  was  again  in  Italy,  the  fatal  pestilence 
began  to  ravage  Europe,  of  which  Laura  died. 

Petrarca  was  fond  of  retirement  from  his  fondness  for 
study;  but  a  certain  restlessness,  the  effect  of  a  peculiar  tem- 
perament, which  the  urgency  of  his  numerous  friends  to  enjoy 
his  society  greatly  augmented,  did  not  permit  him  to  fix  his 
residence  for  any  long  time  in  one  particular  place.  And 
hence  general  literature  was  benefited.  From  this  period  he 
sometimes  passed  months  or  years  in  the  society  of  the 
Italian  sovereigns,  whilst  books  and  extensive  correspondence 
happily  divided  his  hours.  In  1351  he  was  for  the  last 
time  at  Avignon,  which  he  quitted  after  two  years,  little 
pleased  with  the  new  pontiff  Innocent  VI.,  who  is  said  to 
have  feared  that  he  discovered  the  busy  agency  of  Satan  in 
the  energy  of  the  poet's  mind!  Milan  and  its  lords,  the  noble 
family  of  Visconti,  now  received  him,  among  whom  the  contest 
was  who  should  show  him  the  most  signal  marks  of  favour. 


TO  1450.]  PETRARCA.  285 

Here  and  at  Mantua  he  had  an  interview  with  the  emperor 
Charles  IV.  with  whom  he  corresponded,  who  was  equally 
devoted  to  him,  and  from  whose  arrival  in  Italy  the  poet 
had  vainly  anticipated  the  prospect  of  high  glories  to  his 
country.  Soon  after  this  disappointment  he  withdrew  to 
Linterno,  a  retired  villa  not  far  from  Milan. 

Petrarca  has  himself  described  the  life  which  he  led  in  this 
spot,  and  the  state  of  his  mind  at  the  time:  "Like  a  weary 
traveller,"  he  says,  "  who  discovers  the  end  of  his  journey,  I 
now  redouble  my  steps.  Day  and  night  I  read  and  write, 
and  by  these  alternate  changes  relieve  my  labour.  Such  are 
my  occupations — such  my  only  pleasures."  He  mentions 
the  number  of  his  friends,  the  estimation  in  which  he  is  held 
by  persons  who  had  never  seen  him,  and  the  strong  attach- 
ment which  he  feels  for  the  houses,  the  soil,  the  walls,  even 
for  the  air  of  Milan,  between  which  city  and  his  rural  retire- 
ment he  passed  his  days.  Some  years  dear  to  himself  and 
to  Galeazzo  Visconti  thus  flowed  on  in  a  gentle  stream,  when 
in  1360  he  was  deputed  by  his  patron  to  congratulate  the 
French  king  John  on  his  release  from  captivity  in  England. 
His  reception  at  Paris  was  highly  flattering,  and  no  less 
flattering  continued  to  be  the  repeated  marks  of  attention 
which  were  manifested  towards  him  by  the  emperor  Charles. 
He  would  willingly  have  attached  the  poet  to  his  court. 

Padua,  of  which  the  Carraresi  were  lords,  now  became  his 
principal  place  of  residence,  though  his  natural  restlessness 
sometimes  disposed  him  to  rove,  whilst  at  other  times  he 
yielded  to  the  entreaties  of  his  friends.  We  find  him  in 
Venice,  honoured  by  the  doge  and  the  principal  citizens,  and 
we  behold  him  oftener  in  Pavia,  which  was  subject  to 
Galeazzo  Visconti.  It  is  thought  that  an  eloquent  and  pathetic 
letter  which  he  wrote  to  the  pontiff  Urban  IV.  in  the  warmth 
of  his  heart  for  the  prosperity  of  Italy  had  some  effect  in 
inducing  the  latter  to  return  to  Rome.  He  returned,  at  all 
events,  in  1367.  Urban  was  a  lover  of  science;  he  admired 
Petrarca,  and  gave  proofs  of  his  munificence  in  the  promo- 
tion of  letters.  The  joy  of  the  poet  was  unbounded;  and  in 
obedience  to  the  call  of  the  pontiff,  he  had  set  out  to  visit 
him  when  sickness  compelled  him  to  return  to  Padua.  This 
was  in  1370.  The  four  remaining  years  of  his  life  he  spent 
without  much  interruption  in  retirement  near  the  city,  and  in 


286          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1300 

the  morning  of  the  18th  of  July,  1374,  he  was  found  dead  in 
his  library  with  his  head  resting  on  a  book.1 

In  this  brief  sketch  of  the  life  of  Petrarca,  the  reader  will 
remark  his  singular  ardour  in  the  prosecution  of  letters,  as 
well  as  his  endeavours  to  excite  a  similar  feeling  in  the  breasts 
of  his  contemporaries.  It  will  at  the  same  time  be  noticed 
that  he  had  many  and  powerful  protectors.  Hence  he  will 
be  prepared  to  contemplate  more  at  his  leisure  some  other 
effects,  and  the  results  of  other  measures  which  are  still 
wanting  to  prove  the  truth  of  my  general  statement — that  to 
Petrarca  was  due  the  restoration  of  letters  to  Italy,  and 
through  Italy  to  the  other  realms  of  Europe. 

It  is  asserted  that  the  monks  had  for  ages  been  assiduously 
engaged  in  the  meritorious  work  of  transcription,  and  yet  the 
libraries  of  Italy,  and  therefore  of  Europe,  had  little  to  show 
besides  some  works  of  the  fathers,  of  ancient  and  modern 
theologians,  of  ecclesiastical  and  civil  jurisprudence,  of  medi- 
cine, astrology,  and  philosophy,  and  even  these  in  no  abund- 
ance. The  names  of  the  classical  writers  were  barely  re- 
tained, their  productions  and  the  times  in  which  they  lived 
were  miserably  confounded,  and  the  authenticity  of  authors 
not  unfrequently  disregarded.  Bitter  complaints  have  reached 
us  of  the  gross  ignorance  and  extreme  carelessness  of  tran- 
scribers. "  It  would  be  well,"  says  Petrarca,2  speaking  of 
those  of  his  own  times,  "  would  they,  in  any  manner,  write 
what  is  put  into  their  hands:  we  should  witness  indeed  their 
ignorance,  but  we  should  possess  the  substance  of  the  work. 
But  they,  regardless  of  originals  and  copies  and  dictation, 
scribble  anything  at  random.  Were  Cicero  or  Livy,  or  any 
ancient  writer,  to  rise  from  the  grave,  he  would  not  recognise 
his  own  works.  It  is  not  so  with  carpenters  and  similar 
artificers.  The  fault,  however,  may  be  said  to  rest  principally 
with  those  who  employ  such  men.  When  Constantine 
directed  books  to  be  transcribed,  he  ordered  Eusebius  of 
Cesarea  to  employ  able  and  experienced  writers." 

In  this  dearth  of  accurate  copies,  and  even  of  the  valuable 
works  of  many  ancient  authors,  Petrarca  turned  his  mind  to 
the  most  useful  inquiries.  He  saw  that  his  own  efforts  would 

1  I  have  followed  in  this  brief  narration  the  Memoirvs  sur  la  Tic  dv  Pe- 
Irarqite,  by  de  Sade,  published  in  three  vols.  in  1764  and  1707,  and  the 
Storia  delta  Lett.  Ital.  by  Tiraboschi,  v.  vi. 

2  De  Eemed.  utriusque  fortunes  i.  dialog,  xliii. 


TO  1450.]  PETRARCA.  287 

be  useless,  without  recalling  into  general  notice  the  true  models 
of  taste:  he  owned  that  on  this  subject  he  was  animated  by  a 
real  passion,  the  force  of  which  he  had  no  desire  to  check; 
and.  communicating  his  wishes  to  his  friends,  he  entreated 
them  to  join  their  researches  to  his  own,  and  to  ransack  the 
archives  of  libraries.  "  Often,"  says  he,1  "  do  I  find  myself 
disappointed,  but  I  continue  my  labours,  so  pleasing  are  the 
prospects  of  hope.  Waiting  for  further  discoveries,  let  us  be 
satisfied  with  what  we  have  in  our  hands,  and  moderate  the 
avidity  of  learning  by  the  reflection  that  ourselves  are 
mortal." 

His  researches  were  not  very  successful.  Three  decades  of 
Livy — the  first,  third,  and  fourth — were  at  that  time  all  which 
could  be  found.  The  second  decade  was  sought  in  vain.  A 
valuable  work  of  Varro,  and  other  productions  which  he  had 
seen  in  his  youth,  were  irrecoverably  lost.  With  Quintilian 
he  Avas  more  fortunate,  though  the  copy  which  he  discovered 
was  mutilated  and  imperfect.  In  his  enthusiastic  regard  for 
the  Roman  name,  and  in  order  that  he  might  seem  to  enjoy 
the  intercourse  of  the  great  men  whom  he  most  admired, 
Petrarca  addressed  letters2  to  some  of  the  departed  worthies 
of  the  republic,  among  whom  Cicero  may  be  considered  as 
his  idol.3  His  collection  of  the  works  of  this  great  master 
was  very  incomplete,  though  his  inquiries  respecting  them 
were  incessant,  and  he  had  the  happiness  to  make  some  new 
discoveries,  particularly  of  his  familiar  Epistles.  "  On  many 
occasions, "  he  enthusiastically  observes,4  "  when  I  met 
strangers,  and  they  asked  what  I  desired  from  their  country — 
Tsothing.  I  replied,  but  the  works  of  Cicero.  And  frequently 
AV;IS  this  request  repeated,  when  I  sent  money  not  into 
Italy  only,  where  I  was  best  known,  but  into  France,  and 
Germany,  and  Spain,  and  Britain,  and  as  far  as  Greece. 
Thus  I  obtained  some  small  volumes,  but  seldom  such  as  I 

most  anxiously  sought When  travelling,    if  at  a 

distance  I  descried  some  ancient  monastery,  to  it  I  turned 
my  .-trps.  Haply,  thought  I,  I  may  there  find  what  I  most 
want."  He  was  once  possessed  of  Cicero's  work  De  Gloria, 
but  he  lent  it  to  a  friend,  and  it  was  irreparably  lost  to  him- 

i   Sfiiil.  iii.  0.     Tamil,  iii.  18.  2  Ad  viros,  111.  passim. 

3  Semi,  xv.  1.  *  Ibid. 


288         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.        [A.D.  1300 

self  and  to  the  world.1  I  ought  also  not  to  omit  the  mention 
of  the  strenuous  assiduity  which  he  employed  in  making 
transcripts  of  ancient  works  with  his  own  hand,  by  which  his 
eager  thirst  was  allayed,  and  accurate  copies  multiplied. 

To  this  laudable  species  of  research,  Petrarca  was  also 
diligent  in  his  inquiries  after  medals,  of  which  he  formed  a 
collection,  and  observations  on  ancient  monuments.  When- 
ever his  good  fortune  conducted  him  to  Rome,  we  may 
accompany  him  in  his  perambulations  with  singular  delight, 
as  he  traces  the  vestiges  of  her  former  greatness,  and  expa- 
tiates on  the  names  of  her  heroes,  and  the  events  of  her 
history.2  In  this  history  he  appears  to  have  been  well  read. 
When  he  beheld  the  precious  relics  of  Roman  magnificence 
neglected  by  indolence  or  dispersed  by  a  sordid  avarice,  his 
indignation  was  inflamed.  "  Do  you  not  blush,"  he  says  to 
a  Roman  citizen,3  "  to  draw  a  vile  gain  from  that  which 
escaped  the  rapacity  of  your  barbarous  ancestors?  Your 
columns,  the  ornaments  of  your  temples,  your  statues,  even 
the  sepulchres  under  which  the  venerable  ashes  of  the  dead 
repose,  serve  to  embellish  other  cities."  In  another  place  he 
severely  censures  the  ignorance  of  the  Romans  with  respect 
to  their  own  sacred  monuments.  Nowhere,  he  observes,  is 
Rome  so  little  known  as  within  her  own  walls.4 

But  neither  Rome,  nor  Roman  greatness,  nor  the  remains 
of  Roman  literature,  were  sufficient  totally  to  absorb  the 
attention  of  this  active  man.  Greece  also  engaged  his  thoughts. 
The  study  of  the  Greek  language  had  at  no  time  been  com- 
pletely neglected;  and  when  an  occasion  of  learning  it  offered, 
Petrarca  prosecuted  it  with  his  usual  zeal.  But  he  never 
wholly  surmounted  its  difficulties;  for,  when  a  present  of  a 
Greek  Homer  was  sent  him  from  Constantinople,  he  lamented 
his  inability  to  taste  its  beauties.  His  joy,  however,  to  pos- 
sess the  works  of  this  immortal  bard  was  not  less  sincere. 
"  Your  present  of  the  original  text  of  the  divine  poet,"  he 
writes  to  his  benefactor,5  "  is  worthy  of  yourself  and  me. 
Yet  your  liberality  is  imperfect:  with  Homer  you  should 
have  given  me  yourself;  a  guide  who  could  lead  me  into  the 
fields  of  light,  and  disclose  to  me  the  wonders  of  the  Iliad  and 


i  See  Storia  della  Let.  Hal.  i.  2  FamiL  vi.  2. 

3  Hortat.  ad  Nic.  Laurent.  4  Famil.  vi.  2. 

5  Famil.  xi.  ii. 


TO   1450.]  PETRARCA.  289 

Odyssey.  For,  alas !  Homer  is  dumb,  or  I  am  deaf ;  nor  is 
it  in  my  power  to  enjoy  the  treasure  which  I  possess.  I 
have  placed  him  by  the  side  of  Plato,  the  prince  of  poets  near 
the  prince  of  philosophers;  and  I  glory  in  the  sight  of  my 
illustrious  guests.  Of  their  immortal  writings,  whatever  had 
been  translated  into  the  Latin  idiom  I  had  already  acquired; 
but,  if  there  be  no  profit,  there  is  some  pleasure  in  beholding 
these  venerable  Greeks  in  their  proper  and  national  habit. 
I  am  delighted  with  the  aspect  of  Homer;  and  as  often  as  I 
embrace  the  silent  volume,  I  exclaim  with  a  sigh — illustrious 
bard!  with  what  pleasure  should  I  listen  to  thy  song,  if  my 
sense  of  hearing  were  not  obstructed." — He  sought  anxiously 
the  acquisition  of  other  works  in  the  same  language ;  and  we 
may  read  a  letter  addressed  by  him  to  the  Grecian  poet,  in 
which  he  mentions  who,  in  the  cities  of  Italy,  were  at  this 
period  versed  in  the  language.  The  number,  it  seems,  was 
not  considerable;  and  in  Rome,  he  says,  there  was  not  one.1 

Such  was  Petrarca,  and  such  his  pursuits.  But  it  is  on  his 
Italian  poetry  that  his  countrymen  dwell  in  a  strain  of  praise, 
which  prodigality  itself  cannot  exhaust,  though  the  less  en- 
thusiastic among  them  are  ready  to  admit  its  blemishes  and 
defects.  Notwithstanding  the  progress  which  Dante  had  made 
— of  which,  it  has  been  said,  Petrarca  was  sometimes  jealous — 
the  language  was  still,  in  some  respects,  so  imperfect,  and  such 
was  his  unreserved  admiration  of  the  ancients,  that  it  is  pro- 
bable he  would  have  composed  no  verse  except  in  the  Latin 
tongue,  if  no  Laura  had  interposed  to  divide  his  affections, 
and  occasionally  to  be  the  sole  occupant  of  his  heart.  In  the 
language  of  Virgil  he  wrote  his  Africa,  and  some  other  poems; 
but  to  the  ear  of  Laura  he  was  compelled  to  address  lines 
which  she  herself  could  read.  This  gave  rise  to  his  songs  and 
sonnets — of  which,  though  he  himself  often  speaks  slightingly 
— it  is  evident  that  they  were  polished  with  the  utmost  nicety. 
Of  them  he  says: — 

"  S'io  avessi  creduto,  che  si  care 
Fosser  le  voci  de'  sospir  miei  in  rima, 
Fatte  1'aurei  del  sospirar  mio  prima 
la  numero  piu  spesse,  in  stil  piu  rare." 

These  sonnets  are  allowed  to  form  the  most  perfect  model 

1  See  Memoires  sur  la  Vie  de  Pet.  iii. 


290        LITERARY  HISTORY  OP  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1300 

of  Italian  lyric  poetry.  Yet  it  is  also  admitted,  that  we  often 
find  in  them  thoughts  which  are  ingenious  rather  than  just; 
that  we  discover  insipid  allusions  and  forced  conceits;  the 
defects  of  that  vitiated  taste  which  the  Provencal  fablers  had 
contributed  to  propagate,  and  which  Petrarca  did  not  avoid 
in  those  moments  when  he  suffered  fashion  to  take  the  prece- 
dence. It  has  been  said  that  he  borrowed  from  that  tribe 
of  poetasters.  The  historian  replies,  that  what  he  took  from 
them  does  him  the  least  honour,  as  it  was  from  them  that  he 
borrowed  his  false  refinements,  metaphysical  conceptions,  and 
unnatural  sentiments.  This,  moreover,  is  certain,  that  after 
the  muse  of  Petrarca  had  excited  public  attention,  the 
Troubadours,  with  their  language,  their  songs,  and  their 
poetry,  were  no  more  heard  of,  at  least  in  Italy.  When,  then, 
the  state  of  other  languages  and  the  circumstances  of  the 
times  are  duly  considered,  how  surprising  is  the  degree  in 
which  Petrarca  contributed  towards  the  revival  of  letters ! 

Having  observed  that  it  was  from  his  free  intercourse  with 
the  learned  and  polished  men  in  the  court  of  Avignon  (and 
the  cities  of  Italy),  that  the  poet  had  formed  his  language, 
and  warmly  extolled  the  beautiful  richness  of  his  lyric  com- 
positions, which  almost  alone  merit,  he  says,  like  those  of 
Horace,  to  be  committed  to  memory,  Denina1  adds:  "  That 
the  style  of  Petrarca,  after  the  lapse  of  four  hundred  years, 
is  still  followed  as  the  most  perfect  model  of  writing;  and  that 
hardly  a  word  in  those  compositions  will  be  found,  which  is 
become  obsolete  or  antiquated." 

It  is  generally  agreed  that  his  Latin  style  is  less  perfect 
than  his  Italian,  whether  his  poetry  or  his  prose  be  considered. 
Yet  it  was  for  his  Africa,  principally  a  Latin  poem,  that  he 
was  solemnly  crowned  in  the  Roman  capitol. 

It  is  then,  it  seems,  a  work  of  less  difficulty  to  bring  to  a 
certain  degree  of  maturity  a  living  language  Avhich  has 
emerged  from  barbarism  than  to  restore  one  which  had  fallen 
into  decay  and  ceased  to  be  spoken.  Experience  has  uni- 
formly confirmed  the  truth  of  this  observation.  Petrarca  was 
devoted  to  the  writers  of  ancient  Rome,  and  he  read  them 
assiduously;  yet,  with  the  exception  of  some  passages,  his 
efforts  will  not  bear  a  comparison  with  theirs.  But  he  rescued 
their  works  from  oblivion,  pointed  to  their  excellencies,  and 

1  Vicende  della  Lett.  i.  12. 


TO  1450.]  BOCCACCIO.  291 

gave  a  vigorous  impulse  to  the  public  mind  in  their  favour. 
This  was  praise  enough.1  Of  his  Latin  productions,  however, 
though  now  preserved  perhaps  from  oblivion,  and  buoyed 
up  by  the  Italian  muse,  it  may,  I  think,  Avith  truth  be  said, 
that  by  perpetual  references  to  the  polished  writers  of  anti- 
quity with  which  they  abound,  and  the  praises  lavished  on 
them,  they  contributed  more  than  any  other  cause  to  excite 
and  to  diffuse  a  better  taste. 

Nine  years  younger  than  Petrarca  was  Giovanni  Boccaccio, 
who  was  united  to  him  by  friendship;  who  laboured  with  him 
in  the  same  honourable  career  of  letters;  and  with  him  was 
entitled,  from  Italy  and  from  Europe,  to  an  almost  equal  por- 
tion of  praise.  He  also  was  born  in  Tuscany.  He  studied 
under  the  best  masters ;  and  from  them,  and  from  the  conver- 
sation of  other  learned  men,  and  from  what  might  now  be 
esteemed  a  national  propensity,  he  had  begun — even  long 
before  he  became  personally  acquainted  with  Petrarca — to 
peruse  the  works  of  the  ancients,  to  collect  and  multiply 
copies,  to  imbibe  their  taste,  and  to  transfuse  their  beauties 
into  the  idiom  of  his  native  tongue.  If  the  poetry  of  Italy 
owed  so  much  to  Petrarca,  the  Tuscan  prose  was  not  less 
indebted  to  Boccaccio.  He  served  his  country  in  many  honour- 
able embassies,  both  in  and  out  of  Italy,  and  those  employ- 
ments were  rendered  subservient  to  his  own  improvement, 
and  to  the  general  interests  of  elegant  literature. 

The  friendship  between  Boccaccio  and  Petrarca  commenced 
about  the  year  1350;  from  which  time  it  continued  uninter- 
rupted, and  is  proved  by  their  correspondence  to  have  been 
productive  of  many  advantages  to  both.  Their  minds,  their 
views,  their  wants,  their  pursuits,  were  communicated  with 
mutual  confidence  and  unreserve.  Boccaccio  was  warmly 
encouraged  by  Petrarca  to  persevere  in  his  search  after  clas- 
sical treasures;  and,  as  his  pecuniary  means  were  slender,  he 
devoted  much  time  to  the  irksome  labour  of  transcription. 
His  collection  of  Latin  authors  thus  became  considerable;  and 
in  the  study  of  the  Greek  language  he  was  more  successful 
than  his  friend. 

In  1360,  Leo,  or  Leontius  Pilatus  as  he  is  more  generally 
called,  being  on  his  way  from  the  East  to  Avignon,  was  de- 

1  See  on  this  interesting  subject,  Storia  delta  Lett.  Ituliana,i\:  also  Mc- 
tur  la  Vic  dc  Petrartjue,  iii. 

u2 


292        LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1300 

tained  at  Florence  by  the  advice  and  hospitality  of  Boccaccio, 
who  lodged  the  stranger  in  his  house.  It  is  not  agreed  whether 
he  was  a  native  of  Greece,  or  of  Calabria — in  which  latter 
country  the  language  of  its  ancient  inhabitants  had  never  been 
wholly  lost.  'But  whether  he  were  a  Greek  or  not  by  birth, 
he  was  a  perfect  master  of  its  tongue  and  of  its  literature; 
and  we  may  conceive  with  what  rapture  Boccaccio  would 
seize  the  golden  occasion  of  providing  instruction  for  himself, 
and  perhaps  of  extending  the  same  benefit  to  his  countrymen. 
With  this  view,  having  prevailed  on  Leontius  to  accede  to  his 
wishes,  he  proposed  to  the  magistrates  to  elect  him  a  member  of 
their  academy,  and  to  settle  on  him  an  annual  stipend.  With 
some  difficulty  Leontius  was  brought  to  assent  to  this  proposal, 
when  he  publicly  opened  the  first  Greek  chair  which  had  been 
seen  in  the  west,  and  delivered  lectures  on  the  immortal  works 
of  Homer.  "  I  was  the  first  person,"  says  Boccaccio,  speak- 
ing triumphantly  of  the  event,1  "  who  assisted  privately  at  his 
lectures,  and  who  caused  them  to  be  publicly  delivered." 
Yet  the  appearance  of  the  Greek  teacher  was  disgusting.  He 
was  clothed,  says  his  disciple,2  in  the  mantle  of  a  philosopher, 
or  a  mendicant;  his  countenance  was  hideous;  his  face  over- 
shadowed with  black  hair;  his  beard  long  and  uncombed;  his 
deportment  rustic;  his  temper  gloomy  and  inconstant;  nor 
could  he  grace  his  discourse  with  the  ornaments  or  even  the 
perspicuity  of  Latin  elocution.  But  his  mind  was  stored  with 
a  treasure  of  Greek  learning;  history  and  fable,  philosophy 
and  grammar,  were  alike  at  his  command.  During  three 
years  Boccaccio  attended  his  lectures;  from  his  dictation  he 
transcribed  a  literal  prose  version  of  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey; 
and  from  his  general  instructions  collected  other  materials, 
which  he  copied  into  some  treatises,  which  were  afterwards 
published  by  himself. 

The  inconstant  man  now  resolved  to  return  to  the  East,  and 
no  entreaties  could  detain  him.  At  Venice  he  saw  Petrarca, 
with  whom  he  spent  some  weeks;  and  when  he  departed,  the 
poet  presented  him  with  a  copy  of  Terence.  "  With  this 
author,"  said  he,3  "  I  observed  that  he  was  greatly  amused, 
though  I  could  not  see  what  there  could  be  in  common 
between  the  gloomy  Greek  and  the  sprightly  African."  But 
scarcely  had  he  reached  Constantinople,  than  he  again  sighed 

1  De  Geneal.  Deorum.  XT.  7.  2  Ibid.  a  Semi.  iii.  vi. 


TO  1450.]  BOCCACCIO.  293 

for  the  pleasures  of  Italy,  and  wrote  a  letter  to  Petrarca, 
"  more  prolix  and  not  less  entangled  than  his  own  shaggy 
beard,"  in  which  he  praised  as  a  celestial  paradise  the  country 
which  he  had  so  often  cursed,  and  cursed  that  (Greece)  which 
he  had  been  so  often  heard  to  praise.  His  Italian  friends 
were  deaf  to  his  importunity:  "for  me,"  observed  Petrarca, 
in  another  letter,1  "  he  shall  remain  in  misery,  where  he  was 
carried  by  his  insolence."  Notwithstanding  this,  Leontius 
embarked,  relying  upon  their  partiality,  and  more  perhaps 
upon  their  love  of  letters;  but  as  he  approached  the  shores  of 
Italy,  the  ship  was  assailed  by  a  tempest,  and  the  unfortunate 
teacher,  who  like  Ulysses  had  lashed  himself  to  the  mast,  was 
stricken  dead  by  a  flash  of  lightning.  Whilst  Petrarca 
lamented  his  disaster,  he  expressed  much  anxiety  to  learn 
whether  some  copy  of  Euripides  or  Sophocles  might  not  be 
recovered  from  the  hands  of  the  mariners.2 

Boccaccio  is  the  author  of  many  works  on  a  variety  of  sub- 
jects, in  Latin  and  Italian,  and  both  in  prose  and  in  verse. 
His  Latin  is  not  elegant,  and  his  poetry  will  not  endure  a  com- 
parison in  either  language  with  that  of  Petrarca.  At  the 
time,  whatever  fell  from  his  pen  was  admired;  but  it  was  the 
Decameron,  a  collection  of  a  hundred  novels  of  pleasantry  and 
love,  which  formed  the  eternal  basis  of  his  fame.  It  is,  how- 
ever, disgraced  by  irreligion  and  polluted  by  obscenity;  on 
which  account,  it  is  said,  that  he  never  dared  to  submit  it  to 
the  severer  judgment  of  his  friend.  He  is  said  to  have  deplored 
the  evil  when  it  could  not  be  remedied.  This  work  has  expe- 
rienced numberless  editions,  translations,  and  imitations.  Its 
style,  say  the  Italians,3  in  point  of  elegance  and  choice  of 
language,  its  easy  and  natural  narration,  and  the  eloquence  of 
its  dialogue,  place  it  amongst  the  most  perfect  models  of 
Italian  composition.  It  cannot  easily  be  determined  from 
what  quarter  the  subjects  of  these  novels  were  derived.  Some 
Italians  pretend  that  they  were  founded  on  real  incidents, 
which  were  occasionally  altered,  and  always  embellished,  by 
the  writer;  while  the  French  contend  that  he  was  indebted  to 
their  Trouveurs  and  Troubadours.  This  may  be;  but  the 
copy  greatly  surpassed  the  originals  ;  and  the  Decameron 
soon  became  the  general  store-house  from  which  men  of  all 

1  Senil.  iv.  iv.  2  Ibid.  vi.  i. 

1  Storia  della  Lett.  Itol  vi.  iii.   Deuiuu.  i.  xiii. 


294         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1300 

countries  unsparingly  drew,  as  they  were  wanted,  light  and 
amusive  subjects.  It  may  also  be  remarked,  that  the  manners 
of  the  age  are  depicted  in  the  Decameron,  not  only  in  those 
characters  which  the  fancy  of  the  writer  has  introduced,  but 
in  many  traits  of  real  history. 

Boccaccio  was  called  in  1373  to  read  lectures  on  the  Divine 
Comedy  of  Dante  in  Florence,  for  which  a  chair  had  been 
just  instituted,  and  an  annual  salary  appointed.  His  com- 
ments on  the  poet  were  afterward  published;  and  he  was 
engaged  in  this  office,  and  in  the  general  prosecution  of  his 
studies,  when  he  died  in  1375,  one  year  after  the  demise  of 
Petrarca.1 

When  in  one  succinct  view  we  comprehend  the  labours 
and  achievements  of  these  two  scholars;  observing  that  one 
raised  the  language  of  Italian  poetry,  the  other  that  of  Italian 
prose,  to  a  degree  of  perfection  which  has  not  since  been  sur- 
passed; that  they  both  wrote  many  Latin  works,  not  classi- 
cally elegant,  but  replete  with  much  curious  information,  and 
interspersed  with  quotations  from,  and  references  to,  ancient 
authors;  that  they  rescued  some  copies  of  these  authors  from 
oblivion,  procured  the  transcription  of  others,  and  imparted 
to  all  the  charm  of  renovated  celebrity;  that  to  their  example 
was  owing  the  study  which  now  commenced  of  the  language 
of  Greece,  and  the  knowledge  of  her  poets,  her  historians,  and 
her  philosophers;  that,  having  done  all  that  men  could  do  in 
the  arduous  circumstances  in  which  they  were  placed,  they 
left  behind  them  other  scholars,  not  their  equals  indeed  in 
talents,  but  alike  desirous  to  prosecute  the  work  which  had 
thus  far  been  happily  accomplished  :  When,  I  say,  these 
things  are  duly  considered,  we  must  with  joy  confess,  that  the 
dark  era  of  ignorance  which  had  so  long  oppressed  the 
western  world,  was  fast  retiring  from  the  confines  of  Italy. 
Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  literature  had  there  been  revived. 

Amongst  many  others  who  knew  Petrarca,  whom  he  loved, 
and  who  after  his  death  continued  to  cultivate  the  various 
branches  of  polite  learning,  was  another  Tuscan,  named 
Coluccio  Salutato,  of  whose  extensive  accomplishments  much 
is  related.  He  was  chancellor  of  the  republic  of  Florence, 
the  friend  and  patron  of  learning,  the  author  of  many  books, 
and,  like  his  two  great  predecessors,  an  admirer  and  collector 

1  See  the  works  last  quoted. 


TO  1450.]          COLUCCIO  SALUTATO.  295 

of  the  works  of  antiquity.  Aware  also  like  them  of  the 
injury  which  had  been  done  to  letters  by  the  ignorance  or  the 
negligence  of  transcribers,  he  proposed  as  a  check  to  the  evil 
that  public  libraries  should  be  everywhere  formed,  the  super- 
intendence of  which  should  be  given  to  men  of  learning, 
whose  care  it  must  be  to  collate  the  manuscripts  entrusted  to 
them  and  ascertain  the  most  correct  readings.  To  this  labour, 
and  to  the  detection  of  counterfeit  works — of  which,  as  might 
well  be  expected,  many  from  various  motives  were  circulated 
— Coluccio  likewise  devoted  some  portion  of  his  own  studies. 

Though  he  was  acquainted  with  all  the  branches  of  learn- 
ing, yet  he  chiefly  excelled  in  poetry  and  eloquence;  and 
hence  his  eulogists  did  not  hesitate  to  compare  him  with 
Cicero  and  Virgil.  A  contemporary  writer,  speaking  of  the 
harmony  of  his  style,  and  meaning  to  compliment  him,  ob- 
served that  he  might  justly  be  called  the  ape  of  Cicero. 
Modern  writers  do  not  yield  their  assent  to  this  extravagance 
of  praise;  but  they  admit  that  he  surpassed  most  of  his  con- 
temporaries in  energy  of  expression,  that  his  general  erudi- 
tion was  vast,  and  that  his  letters  and  other  works  prove 
that  he  had  perused  the  volumes  of  the  ancients  with  discri- 
minating solicitude.  Coluccio  lived  to  see  some  years  of  the 
following  century,  uninterruptedly  enjoying  the  esteem  of 
his  countrymen,  which  he  employed  in  diffusing  and  invigo 
rating  the  love  of  letters,  and  in  inspiring  a  taste  for  the 
elegant  arts.  The  laurel  which  had  decorated  the  brows  of 
Petrarca  seemed  to  be  due  also  to  the  Latin  muse  of  Coluccio; 
but,  during  his  life-time,  the  honour,  though  intended,  was 
from  some  unknown  cause  never  conferred.  But  it  was  be- 
stowed after  his  death.  As  he  lay  on  his  bier,  surrounded 
by  the  people,  the  magistrates  approached,  and  placed  a 
wreath  of  laurel1  on  the  corpse. 

Coluccio,  then,  had  continued  the  labours  of  his  immediate 
predecessors,  with  a  success  inferior  only  to  theirs:  and  were 
it  required  from  me — in  each  department  of  learning,  whether 
in  Tuscany,  the  nursery  of  reviving  letters,  or  in  the  other 
provinces  of  Italy — to  mention  other  names,  I  could  readily, 
from  the  records  before  me,  produce  an  honourable  and  an 
ample  list.  But  enough,  I  think,  has  been  said;  for  when  an 

1  See  Storia  della  Lett.  Ital.  v.  pusuhn ;  also  Memoires  sur  la  Vie  rfe 
Petrarque. 


296         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1300 

impulse,  such  as  we  have  beheld,  extensive  in  its  effects  and 
forcible  in  its  agency,  had  been  given,  no  power,  if  any  had 
made  the  attempt,  could  well  have  arrested  its  progress.  The 
art  of  printing  was  alone  wanting,  without  which,  as  must  be 
obvious,  the  means  of  general  improvement  would  be  tardy 
and  confined;  but  as  the  dearth  of  books,  in  the  augmented 
ardour  for  instruction,  was  daily  more  poignantly  felt,  the 
inventive  faculties  of  man,  which  are  ever  most  active  where 
the  pressure  of  penury  is  most  felt,  must  soon  be  crowned 
with  success.  In  the  meantime,  it  seems  certain  that  Italy 
was  most  rich  in  classical  treasures,  to  which  strangers  had 
often  recourse;  and  as,  after  the  time  of  Petrarca,  the  taste 
for  books  increased,  they  became,  as  in  early  times,  an  article 
of  luxury,  with  which  the  houses  of  the  opulent  were  ambi- 
tiously decorated.1 

Need  I  speak  of  the  scholars  of  other  countries?  They 
could  not  be  unacquainted  with  what  was  doing  or  had  been 
done  in  Italy;  for  many  had  seen  Petrarca  at  Avignon,  which 
was  at  that  time  the  centre  of  general  intercourse;  others 
corresponded  with  him;  and,  from  the  continued  interchange 
of  studies  which  has  been  mentioned,  between  Bologna, 
Paris,  and  Oxford,  a  channel  of  communication  universally 
prevailed.  These  studies,  indeed,  which  have  been  described, 
whether  of  law,  of  philosophy,  or  theology,  might  not  be 
deemed  favourable  to  the  growth  of  classical  taste;  though  a 
taste  of  that  kind  might  still  be  found  amongst  their  votaries: 
whilst  the  mere  exercise  of  intellect,  however  jejune  or  ab- 
struse its  pursuits,  was  in  itself  a  fortunate  event.  But  I  was 
speaking  only  of  the  intercourse  which  the  community  of 
the  studious  maintained  in  Europe. 

Whether  we  consider  the  improved  state  of  its  language, 
the  cultivation  given  to  that  of  Greece,  or  the  many  liberal 
objects  of  its  inquiries,  it  must  be  owned  that  Italy  had  now 
left  the  other  nations  of  Europe  far  behind  it.  Its  theologians 
and  philosophers,  addicted  to  scholasticism,  to  which  our 
countryman  Duns  Scotus  had  given  new  energy,  pursued  its 
intricate  mazes  with  unwearied  ardour;  but  fortunately  the 
minds  of  many  had  taken  another  turn,  which  happened  also 
fortunately  before  the  explosion  of  the  great  schism,  in  1378. 
The  dissensions  which  this  event  everywhere  excited,  and 

1  Storia  della  Lett.  Ital.  v.  passim. 


TO   1450.]  DUNS  SCOTUS.  297 

which  continued  for  little  less  than  fifty  years,  obstructed 
the  progress  of  letters,  and,  in  turning  over  the  annals  of  the 
times,  we  meet  with  little,  particularly  out  of  the  precincts  of 
Italy,  which  can  afford  any  rational  delight. 

I  mentioned  Duns  Scotus,  of  whom  I  shall  just  observe 
that  he  lived  very  early  in  the  century;  that  he  was  a  friar, 
and  a  man  of  astonishing  talents;  that  he  taught  in  Oxford 
and  at  Paris,  where  he  acquired  great  celebrity  by  his  multi- 
farious learning,  and  the  appellation  of  the  subtle  doctor  from 
his  polemical  acuteness.  He  died  very  prematurely  at  Cologne, 
when,  according  to  some,  he  had  not  passed  his  thirty-fourth 
year.  Of  the  extent  and  subtlety  of  his  mental  powers  many 
monuments  are  extant;1  and  having  dared  to  controvert  some 
positions  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  who  was  deemed  the  oracle  of 
the  schools,  he  became  the  founder  of  a  new  sect  in  philosophy, 
and  revived,  with  unextinguishable  ardour,  the  old  dis- 
putes between  the  Realists  and  Nominalists.  The  Greeks 
and  Persians,  it  has  been  observed,  never  fought  against 
each  other  with  more  fury  and  rancour  than  these  two  dis- 
cordant sects.  Oxford  was  a  great  theatre  of  their  contests. 

In  perusing  the  history  of  this  celebrated  university,  we  are 
often  disgusted  with  the  recital  of  feuds  which  were  not 
always  so  harmless  as  those  which  I  have  just  noticed. 
Scotus  had  been  its  ornament,  but  his  brethren  of  the  mendi- 
cant orders  had  long  shown  themselves  turbulent,  as  Paris 
had  likewise  experienced,  opposing  the  public  statutes,  and 
availing  themselves  of  their  influence  with  the  people,  and 
still  more  of  that  which  they  possessed  at  the  Roman  court. 
Some  charges  of  our  honest  historian  are  more  grievous. 
Speaking  of  the  state  of  the  university  at  this  time,  he  says:2 
'•'  Now  nourished  many  teachers  in  the  walks  of  theology 
and  philosophy;  but  this  must  be  understood  of  the  talents 
and  the  learning  of  the  age,  for  the  science  professed  by 
most  was  made  up  of  fallacies  and  follies.  To  the  mendicant 
brothers  was  chiefly  due  this  corruption  of  science,  whose 
study  it  was  to  introduce  novel  opinions,  and  to  shake  the 
foundation  that  had  been  laid." 

Whilst  I  am  upon  this  subject,  I  may  further  observe, 
that  notwithstanding  the  high  reputation  of  Scotus,  whose 

1  See  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  App.  per  Warton,  2. 

2  Hist,  et  Antiq.  Uiiiver.  Oxon.  sub  int. 


298         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1300 

lectures  thirty  thousand  pupils  are  said  to  have  pressed  for- 
ward to  attend,  the  number  of  students,  soon  after  this, 
greatly  decreased.  Of  this  various  causes  are  assigned  by  the 
historian.1  He  adds  that  a  general  inattention  and  careless- 
ness ensued.  The  lectures  were  given  without  solicitude,  the 
disputations  were  animated  by  no  zeal,  and  the  very 
language,  by  a  perceptible  change  in  its  Latinity,  could  soon 
attest  the  spreading  evil.  "  But  truly,"  he  subjoins,  indig- 
nantly, "  let  it  not  be  presumed  that  we  were  without  some 
apology.  When  the  Roman  bishops  conferred  our  benefices 
and  our  ecclesiastical  dignities  on  strangers,  while  even  our 
most  learned  men  spent  their  days  without  profit,  or  were 
compelled  to  skulk  under  the  monkish  cowl,  what  inducement 
was  there  to  pursue  studies  in  themselves  not  possessed  of  any 
charm?" 

The  studies  which  did  really  possess  charms  seem  to  have 
been  prosecuted  by  few.  If  we  may  judge  from  his  works, 
they  made  no  part  of  the  acquirements  of  Scotus,  and  it 
<loes  not  appear  that  he  was  at  all  acquainted  with  the  Greek 
language,  though  he  wrote  commentaries  on  some  of  the 
books  of  Aristotle.  Indeed  it  is  not  certain  that  this  language 
was  much  studied  in  our  universities.  In  the  council  of 
Vienna,  held  in  1311,  a  decree  passed  directing  the  languages 
of  the  East,  together  with  that  of  Greece,  to  be  taught  at 
Paris,  Oxford,  and  Bologna,  which  may  be  supposed  to  prove 
that  they  had  been  previously  neglected.  Nor  is  there 
any  proof  that  they  were  afterwards  more  sedulously  en- 
couraged, at  least  for  some  years.  All  research  was  absorbed 
either  in  scholasticism,  which  led  to  fame,  or  in  legal  know- 
ledge, which  led  to  emoluments  and  honours.  The  latter 
studies,  says  the  historian,2  having  given  a  list  of  names,  and 
referring  to  a  contemporary  writer,  "  were  marvellously  fruit- 
ful, producing  riches  and  producing  dignities.  To  them  the 
whole  multitude  of  scholars  are  seen  to  flow." 

While  this  was  the  state  of  things — the  Roman  court,  by 
an  abuse  of  power,  wasting  the  vital  springs  of  the  country, 
and  the  mendicant  orders  disturbing  the  peace  of  the  uni- 
versity, and  even  that  of  the  church  and  of  Rome  herself,  by 
their  domestic  quarrels — Merton  college,  of  which  Scotus  also 

1  Passim  et  sub  aw.  1306. 

2  Hist.  Univer.  Oxon.  sub  an.  1323. 


TO  1450.]  WICKLIFF.  299 

had  been  a  member,  fostered  within  her  walls  a  man  whose 
doctrines  were  soon  to  revolutionize  the  minds  of  many,  and 
to  shake  the  pillars  of  papal  power.  The  man  whom  I  mean, 
was  John  "\Yickliff.  He  came  from  the  northern  parts  of  the 
country,  was  educated  at  Oxford,  where  he  finally  became 
the  head  of  Baliol,  taught  theology,  and  obtained  the  rectory 
of  Lutterworth.  Contemporary  writers,  though  divided  in 
the  judgment  which  they  formed  of  the  integrity  and  views 
of  Wickliff,  are  unanimous  in  the  praise  of  his  vast  erudition 
and  intellectual  capacity.  The  insolence  of  the  mendicants 
first  aroused  his  indignation:  he  contemplated  with  disgust 
the  depraved  manners  of  many  churchmen;  and  the  en- 
croachments of  Rome,  which  could  be  restrained  by  no 
remonstrances  from  his  own  country  and  from  the  other  states 
of  Christendom,  finally  served  to  fix  his  resolution.  No  one 
denies  that  many  abuses  existed  under  these  and  other  heads, 
but,  unfortunately,  ardent  minds  are  ever  prone  to  run  into 
extremes.  Popular  applause  precipitated  his  career;  the 
violence  of  persecution  and  the  intemperance  of  invectives  only 
inflamed  his  zeal;  and  the  scanty  means  of  information 
supplied  in  an  age  of  ignorance,  did  not  lay  before  him  those 
necessary  sources  in  which  he  might  have  learned  what  were 
the  discipline,  the  rules  of  conduct,  the  practices  of  better 
times;  and  that  the  evils,  the  prevalence  of  which  he  lamented, 
were  manifest  abuses  which  might  be  corrected,  not  deviations 
in  principle  from  essential  truth,  which  needed  eradication 
rather  than  reform.  But  still,  as  he  proceeded,  notwithstand- 
ing the  extravagance  of  some  of  his  tenets,  so  disgusted  were 
men  with  the  irregularities  which  they  beheld,  and  the  griev- 
ances which  they  experienced,  that  numbers  of  all  orders 
patronised  the  bold  reformer,  and  persons  of  the  highest  dig- 
nity in  the  realm  espoused  his  interest.  Contemporary  writers 
observed,  that  the  provinces  teemed  with  his  disciples;  that 
his  errors  infected  both  the  clergy  and  the  laity;  and  that  the 
schools  of  Oxford  had  deeply  imbibed  the  poison.  Even  when 
papal  letters,  which  contained  injunctions  on  the  subject,  were 
presented  to  the  university,  we  are  told  that  the  leading  mem- 
bers "  lonjr  hesitated,  whether  they  should  admit  them  with 
honour,  or  reject  them  with  disgrace."  ' 

1  See  Walsinghom,  Hist.  Ang.  Knygliton  de  event,  passim  ;  also  Hist. 
Autiq.  Oxon.  Cave,  Hist.  Liter. 


300         LITER AKY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1300 

But  with  the  tenets,  the  designs,  the  moral  character,  and 
the  fate  of  Wickliff,  I  have  no  concern.  His  works  are 
numerous,1  of  which — though  their  subjects  cannot  be  con- 
sidered as  connected  with  literature — it  may  be  said  that 
such  as  were  written  in  English,  and  dispersed  among  the 
people,  greatly  contributed  to  promote  the  progress  of  the 
English  tongue.  Amongst  these  we  may  j  ustly  reckon  his 
version  of  the  Scriptures  from  the  Latin  Vulgate.  The 
public  mind,  thus  agitated  by  novelty  and  the  discussion  of 
various  subjects,  would  naturally  be  induced  to  shake  oif  some 
portion  of  the  lethargy  under  which  it  had  so  long  slumbered, 
and  be  stimulated  to  redoubled  exertions.  Few  blessings  are 
the  portion  of  humanity  which  are  free  from  all  admixture  of 
evil.  If  the  faith  of  some  was  disturbed  by  the  doctrines  of 
Wickliff,  that  of  others  was  more  solidly  confirmed;  and  the 
leaders  of  the  church  saw  the  necessity  of  recurring  to  the 
learning  of  ancient  times  in  order  more  effectually  to  stem 
the  torrent  of  innovation.  Wickliff  flourished  about  the 
middle  of  the  century,  and  died  at  Lutterworth  in  1387. 

The  many  satirical  poems  written  at  this  time,  in  which 
the  mendicant  orders  were  principally  ridiculed,  owed  their 
origin  to  the  writings  of  Wickliff.2 

From  the  subtlety  of  Duns  Scotus,  and  the  controversial 
prowess  of  the  rector  of  Lutterworth,  I  turn  with  more  satis- 
faction to  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  of  whose  life  little  is  known, 
though  his  writings  obtained  so  much  celebrity.  He  was 
coeval  with  Wickliff,  with  whom  it  has  been  said  that  he 
studied  at  Oxford;  that  he  completed  his  studies  in  the 
inns  of  court,  and  saw  the  reigns  of  Edward  III.,  Richard  II., 
and  the  beginning  of  that  of  Henry  IV.,  being  born  in  1328, 
and  dying  in  1400,  aged  72.  He  was  much  in  favour  with 
Edward  III.,  from  whom  he  received  many  tokens  of  regard; 
and  the  friendship  of  John  of  Gaunt  accompanied  him 
through  life.  It  is  not  known  on  what  occasion  he  Avas  sent 
envoy  to  Genoa,  when  he  became  acquainted  with  Petrarca, 
whom  he  professes  to  have  seen  at  Padua.  Such  a  meeting 
between  congenial  minds  would  be  highly  gratifying  to  both; 
and  we  may  conclude  that  Chaucer  availed  himself  of  the  pro- 
pitious opportunity  to  acquire  some  knowledge  of  the  lan- 

1  See  Append,  to  Cave. 

2  See  Hist,  of  Engl.  Poet.  1,  passim. 


TO   1450.]  CHAUCER.  301 

guage  in  which  the  first  of  modern  poets  had  written,  to 
view  the  rising  condition  of  Italian  literature,  and  to  enrich 
himself  with  the  eminent  productions  of  Petrarca  and  of 
Boccaccio.  We  know  that  he  was  captivated  by  the  tales  of 
the  latter.  The  progress  also  which  they  and  their  country- 
men had  made  in  Latin  composition,  would  not  pass  un- 
noticed ;  and  we  may  be  permitted  to  think  that  the  comparison 
which  would  force  itself  on  his  observation,  could  not  be 
favourable  to  his  own  country,  though  it  might  serve  to  give 
a  vigorous  impulse  to  his  own  exertions.  He  was  now  more 
than  forty-four  years  old,  the  age  of  sober  resolution  and  of 
stedfast  perseverance. 

Sometime  after  this,  in  the  last  year  of  Edward  III., 
Chaucer  went  to  France,  where  he  was  entrusted  with  a 
mission  of  delicacy  and  importance.  This  might  not  be  his 
first  journey  to  that  country,  nor  is  it  sure  that  it  was  his 
last.  Speaking  of  his  residence  in  France,  Leland  says:  "  It 
is  agreed  that  he  flourished  there,  having  acquired  a  great 
reputation  by  his  literary  exercises,  and  deeply  impressed  on 
his  mind  the  wit,  the  beauties,  the  elegancies,  the  charms  of 
that  highly-polished  tongue.  His  proficiency  exceeded  be- 
lief, and  thus  accomplished,  he  returned  to  the  legal  studies 
of  the  Temple."  In  consequence  of  these  acquirements,  we 
are  told  that  it  was  his  favourite  occupation  to  make  trans- 
lations from  foreign  languages,  by  which  his  own  knowledge 
of  them  became  more  correct,  and  as  he  transfused  their 
beauties,  he  added  to  the  polish  of  his  own  vernacular  idiom. 
He  certainly  entertained  a  mean  opinion  of  his  native  lan- 
guage, in  which  he  was  likely  to  be  more  confirmed  by  his 
skill  in  French,  and  still  more  in  Italian;  and  from  this  con- 
viction it  is  doubted  whether  he  deemed  himself  sufficiently 
qualified  to  undertake  an  original  composition  before  his 
sixtieth  year. 

The  revival  of  learning  in  most  countries,  it  has  been  justly 
remarked,1  appears  to  have  owed  its  rise  to  translation.  In 
rude  periods  the  modes  of  original  thinking  are  unknown, 
and  the  arts  of  original  composition  have  not  yet  been  studied. 
Writers,  therefore,  are  chiefly  and  very  usefully  employed  in 
importing  the  ideas  of  other  languages  into  their  own.  They 
do  not  venture  to  think  for  themselves,  nor  do  they  aim  at 

1  Ili.st.  of  Eng.  Poet.  1,  xii. 


302        LITERARY  HISTORY  OP  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1300 

the  merit  of  inventors,  but  they  are  laying  the  foundations  of 
literature,  and  while  they  are  naturalizing  the  knowledge  of 
more  learned  ages  and  countries  by  translation,  they  are  im- 
perceptibly improving  their  own  language.  From  French  or 
Latin  originals,  Chaucer  imitated  or  translated  his  Knighfs 
Tale,  and  the  Romaunt  of  the  Rose,  the  first  from  Boccaccio, 
the  second  from  William  de  Lorris;  his  Troilus  and  Cresseide, 
from  various  foreign  materials,  and  his  House  of  Fame,  it  is 
thought,  from  a  Provencal  composition.1 

The  reign  of  Richard  II.  was  not  equally  favourable  to  the 
fortunes  of  Chaucer,  but  had  he  lived  to  see  Henry  IV.  the 
son  of  his  constant  benefactor,  firmly  seated  on  the  throne, 
he  would  probably  have  experienced  the  richest  returns  of 
royal  favour.  It  is  indeed  no  mean  compliment  to  the  taste 
of  the  British  court,  that  in  a  dark  age  it  could  estimate  the 
value  of  a  man,  whose  chief  excellence  lay  in  literary  acquire- 
ments, though  the  duties  which  were  imposed  on  him  might 
sometimes  not  seem  to  accord  with  the  tendencies  of  his 
genius. 

As  Leland  is  ever  immoderately  lavish  in  his  praises,  I 
know  not  that  we  may  rely  on  his  words  when  he  says  of 
Chaucer,  that  he  was  an  acute  dialectician,  an  orator  full  of 
sweetness,  a  pleasant  poet,  a  deep  philosopher,  an  ingenious 
mathematician,  and  a  holy  divine.  "  These  words  announce 
much,"  he  adds;  "but  for  the  truth  of  them  I  refer  myself 
to  his  judgment  who  shall  have  sedulously  perused  his  works." 
As  a  poet  he  has  certainly  been  as  immoderately  extolled  by 
others,  that  is,  by  men  not  very  remote  from  his  own  age, 
who — at  that  period,  possessing  nothing  so  good  in  their  own 
language,  and  not  able  perhaps  to  compare  him  with  the 
bright  models  of  Italy,  nor  willing  to  recur  to  those  of  ancient 
Rome — were  satisfied  to  pronounce  an  undiscriminating 
panegyric.  I  am  not  surprised  that  Chaucer  should  have 
despised  the  barbarism  of  his  own  tongue;  but  when  he  had 
resolved  to  make  it  the  vehicle  of  his  thoughts,  which  had 
been  improved  by  so  many  years  of  domestic  study  and  of 
intercourse  with  learned  foreigners,  I  am  really  surprised  that 
his  compositions  should  have  been  what  we  find  them  to  be. 
What  advantages  were  possessed  by  Petrarca  and  Boccaccio, 
or  at  least  by  Dante,  which  he  did  not  enjoy?  and  yet,  as 

1  Hist,  of  Eng.  Poet.  xii.  xiii.  xiv. 


TO   1450.]  CHAUCER.  303 

has  been  observed,  the  two  former  became  perfect  models  in 
their  respective  styles,  and  their  predecessor  had  only  not 
reached  perfection;  whilst,  if  we  would  speak  the  truth,  with 
the  exception  of  some  passages,  our  Chaucer  is  read  not  as 
a  poet— who  delights  by  the  richness  of  his  imagery,  or  the 
harmony  of  his  numbers— but  as  a  writer  who  has  portrayed 
with  truth  the  manners,  customs,  and  habits  of  the  age.  Such, 
I  recollect,  was  my  own  judgment  at  least,  when,  some  years 
ago,  I  was  prevailed  upon  to  peruse  him. 

We  are  told,  that  his  sole  design  in  writing  was  to  improve 
his  native  tongue.  He  had  seen  what  had  been  so  success- 
fully accomplished  in  Italy;  and  turning  with  disgust  to  the 
most  famed  compositions — whether  of  his  contsmporaries, 
Robert  de  Brunne,  in  his  metrical  English  chronicle;  Robert 
Langland,  in  his  vision  of  Pierce  Ploughman;  his  friend  John 
Gower,  in  his  dialogue,  entitled  Confessio  Amantis ;  or  to 
those  which  had  preceded  them  l  —  it  was  natural  that  he 
should  feel  a  wish  to  attempt  something  for  his  country. 

Before  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  the  English  language  had 
been  little  spoken  in  the  higher  circles  of  society,  and  this  may 
account  for  the  slow  progress  which  it  had  hitherto  made,  and 
for  the  affectation  of  which  writers  are  accused  of  introduc- 
ing words  of  Gallic  origin.  I  cannot  believe  that,  if  the 
attempt  had  been  made,  the  Saxon,  a  dialect  of  a  language 
peculiarly  copious,  was,  or  would  have  been,  found  inadequate 
to  any  purposes,  whether  of  colloquial  intercourse  or  of  lite- 
rary composition.  Fashion  alone  prescribed  limits  to  its  use, 
and  men  of  science  submitted  to  the  tyranny.  Even  Chaucer, 
satisfied  to  walk  in  the  same  trammels,  chose  rather  to  borrow 
"  from  the  more  polished  languages  of  the  continent,"  than  to 
work,  mould,  and  levigate  the  rough  substance  which  he  had 
in  his  hands.  Hence  his  diction,  considered  as  purely  English, 
differed  little  from  that  of  other  writers;  and  his  chief  excel- 
lence may  be  placed  in  the  mechanism  of  his  verse.  This,  as 
Dr.  Johnson  observes,  he  certainly  improved  by  the  various 
disposition  of  his  rhymes,  and  by  the  admixture  of  different 
numbers,  principally  in  the  adoption  of  the  ten-syllable,  or 
heroic  measure.  Other  critics,  viewing  the  general  beauty 
and  perspicuity  of  his  style,  have  ascribed  them  to  that  happy 
selection  of  appropriate  expressions  which  are  found  to  dis- 

1  See  Hist,  of  Eng.  Poet. 


304         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.    1300 

tinguish  every  writer  of  original  thinking  and  real  genius. 
Steering  a  middle  course  between  those  who  have  praised  him 
without  moderation,  and  those  who  have  censured  him  with 
unmitigated  severity,  the  profound  judge,  whom  I  have  just 
named,  pronounces,  that  Chaucer  "may,  perhaps  with  justice, 
be  styled  the  first  of  our  versifiers  who  wrote  poetically." 

His  works,  of  which  the  Canterbury  Tales  form  the  most 
original  portion,  are  in  every  one's  hands;  but  I  would  wil- 
lingly learn  by  how  many  they  have  been  read,  and  particu- 
larly by  how  many  with  the  feeling  of  delight.  The  licen- 
tiousness with  which  Boccaccio  was  charged  is  equally  im- 
putable  to  his  English  admirer;  and  the  latter  is  said  to  have 
experienced  similar  compunction  as  he  approached  his  end. 
The  depraved  manners  of  the  age  were  a  just  subject  of  sati- 
rical reprehension;  and  monks,  and  friars,  and  nuns,  had  by 
some  excesses  rendered  themselves  fit  objects  of  ridicule.  But 
were  gross  descriptions  and  lascivious  tales  the  proper  cor- 
rectives of  vice  and  folly,  if  correction  had  been  intended  ? 
And  if  amusement,  as  is  plain,  were  the  end  which  was  sought, 
I  do  not  see  of  what  apology  their  levities,  as  they  are  gently 
termed,  are  susceptible.  The  Roman  satirist,  indignant  at 
the  view  of  vice,  had  a  better  plea  for  delineating  the  disgust- 
ing features  of  its  depravity.1 

Chaucer,  then,  it  seems — if  his  improved  versification  be 
considered,  and  the  beauties  of  many  passages  with  those 
sprinklings  of  philosophy  which  embellish  his  works,  with  his 
knowledge  of  history,  of  mythology,  and  of  various  other  sub- 
jects, as  they  incidentally  occur  —  may  take  the  first  rank 
among  our  early  English  poets.  But  may  we  be  allowed  to 
take  from  him  an  estimate  of  the  literature  of  the  times,  as 
possessed  by  men  of  superior  education?  or  to  assert,  that  we 
are  as  much  indebted  to  him,  as  Italy  was  to  her  Dante,  her 
Petrarca,  and  her  Boccaccio? 

What  our  education  in  the  schools  then  was  which  could  be 
termed  superior,  it  is  not  easy  to  ascertain,  unless  in  the  univer- 
sities it  be  restricted  to  scholasticism,  and  such  studies  as  were 
subservient  to  it;  and  in  the  classes  of  grammar,  to  such  ele- 
mentary instruction  as  has  been  repeatedly  described.  What 
some  men  acquired  more  than  this,  was  the  fruit  of  private 

1  See  Leland  de  Scrip.  Brit.  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  i.  Tyrwbitt,  on 
the  Language  and  Versification  of  Chaucer  ;  Specimens  of  early  English 
Poets,  i. 


TO  1450.]  CHAUCER'S  ACQUIREMENTS.  305 

labour.  Such  was  the  learning  of  Chaucer;  and  he  who 
would  consider  it  as  the  standard  of  the  general  acquirements 
which  were  possessed  by  those  who  had  some  claim  to  dis- 
tinction, must  be  satisfied  to  err.  The  list,  not  inconsiderable 
— of  more  than  a  hundred  and  sixty  writers  of  different  coun- 
tries, with  their  works,who  flourished  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
called  the  Saculum  Wicklevianum  '  —  sufficiently  announces 
who  they  were,  and  what  had  been  their  pursuits.  These 
pursuits  were  often  laudable;  and,  in  their  sphere,  they  led  to 
fame,  to  emoluments,  and  to  dignities.  The  conventual  orders 
absorbed  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  those  whom  the  love 
of  retirement  or  of  study  could  allure;  and  it  was  theology, 
in  all  or  in  some  one  of  its  branches,  which  became  their  prin- 
cipal occupation;  while  the  secular  clergy,  if  they  did  not 
pass  their  days  in  indolent  repose,  had  recourse  to  the  study 
of  medicine,  or  as  more  directly  leading  to  preferment,  to  that 
of  ecclesiastical  and  civil  jurisprudence.  Elegant  literature 
entered  into  none  of  these  walks;  and  therefore,  as  I  observed, 
they  were  deserted  by  Petrarca  and  Boccaccio,  and  I  might, 
I  believe,  have  said,  by  Chaucer,  as  not  in  unison  with  that 
line  of  studies  which  they  had  determined  to  pursue.  These 
men,  then,  almost  stood  alone;  and  instead  of  forming  a 
standard  by  which  general  taste  might  be  estimated,  they 
were  a  glaring  exception  which  some  might  admire  but  which 
more  would  condemn.  The  remark  does  not  accurately  apply 
to  Italy. 

A  further  observation  strikes  me,  which  I  am  surprised  di*d 
not  sooner  occur.  One  only  of  these  illustrious  scholars  was 
a  churchman,  and  this  one  was  Petrarca.  But  he,  though  in 
many  respects  a  man  of  singular  piety,  and  enjoying  ecclesias- 
tical emoluments,  did  not  bind  himself  to  any  duties  of  the 
ministry,  and  was  ever  at  liberty  in  his  choice  of  pursuits. 
Hence,  I  think,  we  may  be  allowed  to  conclude,  that  the 
general  studies  of  ecclesiastics  and  of  monks  were  at  this  time 
adverse  to  polite  literature;  that  the  men  of  whom  I  am  speak- 
ing advanced  to  a  certain  degree  of  classical  excellence,  be- 
cause, not  tied  by  their  profession  to  those  studies,  they  chose 
another  path,  and  thus  drew  to  themselves  more  admiration, 
while  the  rest  of  the  laity,  without  taste  for  any  intellectual 
pursuit,  passed  their  time  in  the  menial  offices  of  life,  in  the 

1  Hist.  Lit.  Append. 


306          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1300 

sports  of  the  field,  in  the  delights  of  the  table,  or  in  the  exer- 
cise of  arms.  But  from  these  causes  it  also  happened — as  the 
studious  members  of  society,  ecclesiastics  and  friars  were  en- 
gaged in  their  peculiar  pursuits,  and  the  laity  felt  no  interest 
in  what  they  little  understood  —  that  the  progress  towards 
classical  improvement  must  necessarily  have  been  slow.  We 
may  therefore  be  rather  surprised  that  so  much  was  done. 

But  how  little,  we  may  say,  was  done  by  Chaucer,  and  how 
slight  are  our  obligations  to  him,  when  his  achievements  are 
compared  with  those  of  his  Italian  fellow  labourers !  He  im- 
proved, it  is  said,  the  mechanism,  and  perhaps  the  harmony 
of  verse;  was  the  author  of  some  beautiful  lines;  augmented, 
if  he  did  not  enrich,  the  English  vocabulary  with  foreign 
words,  imparted  to  his  countrymen  some  translations  from  the 
French  and  the  Italian,  and  amused  them  with  tales;  but  did 
he  communicate  to  others  the  taste  for  letters  which  himself 
possessed?  Did  he  excite  anything  like  a  literary  ardour 
amongst  the  great  and  the  opulent?  Did  he  go  in  quest  of 
the  works  of  classical  antiquity,  transcribe  those  works,  or 
procure  their  transcription,  and  form  them  into  libraries  ? 
Was  the  literature  of  Greece  as  well  as  that  of  Rome  an  ob- 
ject of  his  attention;  and  did  he  seek  with  painful  solicitude 
the  means  of  learning  the  language  of  the  former?  In  one 
word,  did  a  new  era  commence  with  him,  or  did  he  leave  be- 
hind him  a  succession  of  scholars,  who,  having  imbibed  his 
spirit,  pursued  his  steps,  and  soon  accomplished  the  object  of 
their  wishes?  This  high  praise  cannot  justly  be  ascribed  to 
Chaucer;  and  the  event  which  I  am  tracing  was  not  owing  to 
his  exertions,  but  to  the  strong  impulse  given  by  the  two 
Italians,  which  was  felt  in  their  own  country,  and  thence  gra- 
dually propagated  to  other  regions.  Chaucer  himself  was  for- 
tunately thrown  into  the  sphere  of  that  impulse,  and  probably 
drew  from  it  that  taste  for  letters  without  which  he  would 
ever  have  remained  a  common  man. 

When  we  further  reflect  on  the  widely  different  conditions 
in  which  the  two  countries  were  left  by  their  respective 
teachers — Italy,  in  all  her  cities,  actively  bent  on  literary  exer- 
tions, whilst  England  was  hardly  roused  from  her  intellectual 
torpor,  and  then  view  their  languages  —  that  of  England 
still  unpolished  and  barbarous,  whilst  that  of  Italy  was  carried 
to  a  state  of  absolute  perfection — what  must  be  our  thoughts? 
As  the  previous  circumstances  were  similar,  must  we  infer 


TO  1450.]  FRENCH  LITERATURE.  307 

that  there  was  any  superior  quality  in  the  Italian  mind  •which 
caused  it  to  receive  more  readily  the  impression  of  what  was 
truly  great  and  beautiful  in  the  arts?  The  language  of  Italy 
was,  in  its  origin,  the  offspring  of  corruption,  though,  by  the 
vigorous  co-operation  and  fostering  care  of  the  same  two  men, 
it  rose  to  maturity,  while  that  of  England  must  wait  the  revo- 
lution of  three  entire  centuries  before  its  standard  shall  be 
fixed!  The  style  of  Petrarca,  after  the  lapse  of  four  hundred 
years,  is  still  followed  as  the  most  perfect  model  of  writing; 
and  hardly  a  word  in  him  will  be  found  which  is  antiquated 
or  obsolete.  Compare  this  with  the  style  and  language  of 
Chaucer. 

I  have  not  mentioned  our  historians,  who  at  this  tune  were 
sufficiently  numerous,  the  principal  of  whom  are  Matthew  of 
Westminster,  Ralph  Higden,  and  Henry  Knighton,  who  all 
wrote  in  Latin,  not  with  more  elegance  certainly  than  their 
predecessors,  and,  whenever  an  opportunity  offered,  borrowed 
from  them  without  reserve.1  None  of  them  exhibit  any  ad- 
vance to  greater  purity  of  style,  to  more  dignity  in  the 
narrative,  nor  to  more  judgment  in  the  selection  of  materials. 

And  what  of  France?  The  reader  must  now  be  sensible 
that  no  information  on  the  subject  of  letters  derived  from 
France,  or  any  other  country,  could  afford  him  any  new  satis- 
faction. If  he  could  be  admitted  into  their  public  libraries, 
their  schools,  or  the  private  studies  of  the  learned,  he  would 
perceive  that  no  other  change,  either  in  language,  in  the 
modes  of  instruction,  or  the  general  progress  of  science,  had 
intervened  than  what  the  regular  course  of  time  would  neces- 
sarily produce.  The  attention  of  those  who  were  solicitous 
for  improvement  would  often  be  turned  towards  Italy,  and 
they  might  envy  her  rising  lustre,  while  by  far  the  greater 
number  remained  satisfied  with  their  condition,  and  beheld 
in  the  achievements  of  Duns  Scotus  and  the  sophistry  of  his 
followers  a  higher  theme  of  praise  than  could  be  collected 
from  the  pursuits  of  Petrarca  or  Boccaccio.  In  France  at 
least,  which  we  may  consider  as  treading  next  in  the  footsteps 
of  Italy,  but  few  inquiries  seem  yet  to  have  been  made  after 
the  works  of  ancient  writers,  though  the  love  of  learning 
continued  ardent,  though  the  schools  were  filled,  and  during 
the  greater  portion  of  the  century  the  intercourse  with  the 

1  English  Library,  by  Nicholson  :  Hist.  Lit.  Leland. 

X2 


308         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1300 

Roman  court  at  Avignon  formed  a  channel  of  general  com- 
munication. I  have  read  that  Charles  V.  of  France,  whom 
historians  represent  as  a  prince  fond  of  reading,  (instruit  en 
lettres  moult  swffisamment,*)  and  to  whom  a  book  was  an 
acceptable  present,  undertook  to  form  a  library.  John  his 
father,  whom  the  Black  Prince  made  prisoner  at  Poitiers, 
had  left  as  a  royal  legacy  twenty  volumes  to  his  son,  which 
he  augmented  to  nine  hundred.  Among  them  were  books  of 
devotion,  astrology,  medicine,  law,  history,  and  romance. 
Amongst  the  few  classical  authors  there  was  not  a  single 
copy  of  the  works  of  Cicero,  and  among  the  Latin  poets 
only  Ovid,  Lucan,  and  Boetius.  To  these  were  added  some 
French  translations — of  Livy,  which  had  been  lately  executed 
"by  the  orders  of  king  John;  of  Valerius  Maximus,  the  City 
of  God  by  St.  Austin,  the  Holy  Bible,  &c.  On  this  slender 
basis,  we  are  told,  was  founded  the  celebrated  library  which 
was  afterwards  called  the  King's,1  the  principal  contents  of 
which  however,  some  years  later,  were  sent  into  England  by 
the  regent  Bedford. 

If  such  was  the  royal  collection,  that  of  private  men  or  of 
public  bodies  was  not  likely  to  have  been  so  richly  stored. 
And  we  must  not  be  surprised  to  see  books  of  astrology  placed 
between  those  of  devotion  and  of  medicine.  There  was  still 
a  strong  predilection  for  that  fallacious  science,  and  the  same 
Charles  V.  is  related  to  have  maintained  in  his  palace  an 
adept  in  the  art  whom  he  named  his  astronomer,  and  on  whom 
he  conferred  many  signal  proofs  of  his  regard. 

Long  indeed  was  the  list  of  ecclesiastical,  scholastic,  and 
legal  writers;  and  when  every  professor  seems  to  have  com- 
mitted his  thoughts  to  paper  we  have  no  reason  to  regret  that 
the  means  of  multiplying  copies  were  yet  so  difficult.  In 
human  learning — if  for  the  sake  of  distinction  the  word 
human  may  be  used — and  in  the  acquirement  of  languages, 
some  progress  was  made.  In  the  latter,  particularly  in  those 
of  the  East,  Raymundus  Lullus  excelled — a  man  of  an  extra- 
ordinary character,  who  lived  eai-ly  in  the  century.2  j  The 

1  The  fact  is  mentioned  by  Renault — sub  an.  1380 — from  what  docu- 
ment he  does  not  say;  also  by  Warton,  Dissert,  ii.,  who  quotes  his  Authority. 
See  also  the  Recherches  sur  les  Bibliotheques  of  Petit  Rodel,  and  the  articles 
relative  to  that  work  in  the   Revue  Encyclopvdique ;    see  also  Dibdin's 
Journey  in  France,  which  has  many  interesting  details  respecting  the  rare 
books  in  the  Bibliotheqite  du  Roi. 

2  See  Dupin,  Bib.  Eccles.  Hist.  Litter.;  see  also  a  Memoir  by  M.  de 
Guando,  in  the  Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscriptions. 


TO  1450.]  FRENCH  POETRY.  309 

Trouveurs  and  Troubadours  no  longer  enjoyed  the  same  degree 
of  popular  celebrity.  The  latter  had  been  eclipsed  by  the 
genuine  muse  of  Italy,  while  to  the  former  had  succeeded  a 
somewhat  more  sober  style  of  poetry.  The  French  from  this 
period  deduce  their  long  chain  of  poets,  which  knows  no  end. 
Romances  were  also  in  vogue,  at  the  head  of  which  is  placed 
the  Roman  de  la  Rose,  begun  in  the  preceding  century  by 
William  de  Lorris,  and  completed  in  this  by  John  de  Meun. 
This  poem  consists  of  twenty -two  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
thirty-four  verses;  and  it  is  said  that  the  French  have  nothing 
equal  to  it  before  the  reign  of  Francis  I.1 

Their  language  would  thus  be  improved;  and  the  degree  of 
the  improvement  will  be  perceptible  by  comparing  the  com- 
positions of  the  present  with  those  of  the  foregoing  age.  It 
will  likewise,  I  think,  be  apparent  that  the  English  language, 
as  Chaucer  thought,  was  less  polished  than  that  of  France, 
which  would  necessarily  arise  from  the  superior  cultivation  of 
the  latter  amongst  the  great,  and  the  more  extensive  channels 
of  its  intercourse.  Yet  how  rude  is  the  speech  of  France, 
how  defective  its  phraseology,  how  inharmonious  its  most 
chosen  numbers  when  placed  beside  those  of  Italy! 

The  style  of  Froissard  the  historian  may  be  taken  as  a  just 
criterion  of  what  was  deemed  most  excellent  in  prose;  and 
from  prose  to  verse  the  transition  is  easy.  Messire  Jehan 
Froissard  was  a  native  of  Hainaut;  and  when  his  young  mis- 
tress Fhilippa  married  our  prince  Edward,  he  accompanied 
her  to  the  English  court,  at  which  he  was  educated,  experi- 
encing, as  he  says,  from  every  quarter,  honneur  amour  largesse 
et  courtoisie.  I  do  not  know  the  time  at  which  he  took  orders; 
but  he  appears  to  have  been  little  qualified  for  the  severer 
duties  of  the  state.  He  was  naturally  inquisitive,  and  though 
by  no  means  versed  in  ancient  or  modern  history,  he  amused 
himself  in  collecting  facts,  and  few  eras  could  have  supplied 
either  more,  or  more  interesting,  than  the  eventful  reign  of 
Edward  III.  When  Philippa,  to  whom  he  had  presented  the 
first  part  of  his  Chronicle  from  1326,  died  in  the  year  1369, 
and  he  was  returned  to  his  native  country,  he  employed  him- 
self in  the  continuation  of  his  history,  and  occasionally  in 
lighter  compositions. 

1  A  valuable  edition  of  this  poem  bus  been  published  under  the  superin- 
tendence of  M.  Meon. 


310          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1300 

It  is  amusing  to  follow  him  in  his  researches  and  to  watch 
the  progress  of  his  work,  as  he  could  add  to  his  stock  of  infor- 
mation by  conversing  with  those  who,  in  England,  or  France, 
or  Scotland,  or  Spain,  had  borne  any  part  in  the  transactions 
of  the  times.  After  the  great  battle  of  Poitiers,  he  says,  in 
1356,  ou  le  noble  roy  Jehan  de  France  fut  prins,  he  had  ex- 
tended his  inquiries;  because  before  that  he  was  himself  moult 
jeune  de  sens  et  daage.  He  again  visited  England,  but  it  was 
after  an  absence  of  twenty-eight  years,  and  soon  after  the 
return  of  Richard  II.  from  his  Irish  expedition.  The  account 
which  he  gives  of  this  visit,  of  his  reception  at  court,  of  the 
conversations  which  he  sought  on  a  variety  of  subjects,  and 
of  his  interview  with  the  king,  when  he  presented  him  with  a 
richly  ornamented  volume,  is  peculiarly  interesting.  This 
volume  he  had  purposely  brought  with  him.  It  was  fairly 
written,  finely  illuminated,  and  covered  with  red  velvet  and 
many  silver  ornaments,  in  which  the  historian  himself  seems 
to  have  displayed  his  manual  skill.  The  king  opened  it, 
looked  into  it,  and  was  greatly  pleased:  etplaire  bien  luy  devoit, 
adds  Jehan,  proceeding  to  describe  the  beauties  of  the  book. 
"He  next  asked  me,"  continues  he,  "of  what  it  treated? — 
of  love,  said  I.  "With  this  answer  he  was  mightily  delighted, 
looked  into  many  places,  and  read,  car  moult  bien  parloit  et 
lisoit  Francois.  This  incident,  with  the  accompaniment  of 
royal  favour,  introduced  the  stranger  into  other  society,  and 
into  that  particularly  of  a  gentleman  who  had  lived  many 
years  in  Ireland,  and  who,  stricken  by  the  sight  of  the  book, 
and  inferring  (we  cannot  tell  why),  that  the  owner  was  ung 
hystorien,  accosted  and  presented  him  with  a  rich  repast  of 
information  upon  some  late  events,  and  upon  the  rude  and 
savage  manners  of  the  Irish  people.  Froissard  now  continued 
his  history  to  the  close  of  the  life  of  Richard,  about  which 
time  he  also  died,  having  been  for  many  years  a  canon  and 
treasurer  of  the  collegiate  church  of  Chimay,  in  the  diocese  of 
Liege.1 

The  work  which  Froissard  presented  to  the  king  was  pro- 
bably a  collection  of  the  many  moral  and  amatory  pieces 
which  he  is  known  to  have  composed.  He  says  that  the  grace 
of  Heaven  and  of  love  had  both  aided  him  in  his  labours. 
His  fondness  for  romances  has  also  been  recorded.  But  the 

1  See  his  own  Chronicle,  passim. 


TO  1450.]  FROISSARD.  311 

fame  of  Froissard  is  founded  on  his  chronicle,  which  com- 
prises a  period  of  eighty-four  years.  Many  have  complained 
of  the  endless  prolixity  of  its  details,  of  his  minute  and  tedious 
descriptions  of  battles,  sieges,  skirmishes,  single  combats, 
and  assaults.  This  may  be  true.  It  may  also  be  true,  that 
his  desultory  method  of  procuring  information  rendered  him 
often  liable  to  error  and  deception,  and  that  his  narration  is, 
on  many  occasions,  no  better  than  a  gossip's  tale.  But,  if  we 
will  be  fastidious,  what  are  other  histories? 

The  Chronicle  of  Froissard,  notwithstanding  the  imperfec- 
tions of  its  style,  and  the  prolixity  of  its  details,  awakens  and 
preserves  an  interest  which  is  not  always  excited  by  more 
polished  narrations  of  modern  or  of  ancient  times.  I  will 
select  a  passage  which  is  written  with  no  peculiar  effort.  It 
shall  be  the  chapter  in  the  first  volume,  in  which  an  account 
is  given  of  the  interview  between  Edward  III.  and  the 
countess  of  Salisbury: — As  Edward  advanced,  the  Scots  had 
raised  the  siege  of  a  certain  castle,  when  the  king  laid  aside 
his  armour  and  presented  himself  at  the  gate.  The  countess 
came  out  splendidly  habited:  every  eye  was  struck  with  her 
beauty;  she  approached  the  king,  and  bowing  to  the  ground, 
thanked  him  for  the  succours  which  he  had  brought,  and  con- 
ducted him  into  the  castle.  His  eye  remained  fixed  on  her, 
et  bien  lid  estoit  advis  que  ongues  ne  avoit  veue  si  noble,  si 
frisque,  ne  si  belle  dame.  They  advanced,  hand  in  hand,  first 
into  the  hall  and  then  into  her  chamber,  which  was  magnifi- 
cently decorated,  as  became  so  noble  a  lady.  Still  Edward 
turned  not  his  eyes  from  her,  when  the  countess  deeply 
blushed.  He  then  withdrew  to  a  window,  and  leaning  on  his 
elbow,  commenca  moult  fort  a  penser.  In  the  remainder  of 
the  story,  the  different  attempts  of  the  countess  to  draw  the 
king  to  the  company;  her  attention  to  the  other  guests  while 
dinner  was  preparing;  the  conversations  between  her  and  his 
majesty,  qui  encore  pensoit  et  mtcsoit,  when  he  declared  his 
]>!issinn.  and  she  repelled  his  tender  of  love  with  a  respectful 
dignity;  and  his  finally  being  prevailed  on  to  sit  down  to 
table,  though  he  ate  little,  and  still  continued  in  thoughtful 
musings — all  this,  with  a  variety  of  little  traits  which  give 
life  and  reality  to  the  picture,  are  related  with  the  most  cap- 
tivating simplicity. 

Though  Froissard  was  not  a  Frenchman,  yet  as  he  was 
educated  in  courts,  and  lived  in  the  politest  circles,  where  the 


312         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1300 

French  language  was  spoken,  we  may  deem  him  a  perfect 
master  of  the  tongue,  and  consider  his  style  as  a  model  of  the 
best  writing  at  that  time.  This  model  appears  to  have  been 
homely,  rude,  and  embarrassed,  which  will  be  more  apparent 
if  we  compare  it  with  contemporary  productions  in  the 
Italian  tongue.  Had  Boccaccio  described  the  interview  be- 
tween Edward  and  the  countess,  it  would  have  been  executed 
in  a  style  of  classical  elegance;  though,  as  it  would  not  have 
possessed  the  characteristic  simplicity  of  this  original,  it  might 
not  have  pleased  us  more.  But  here  the  subject  itself  in- 
terests; on  other  occasions,  as  we  proceed  through  less  amusing 
scenes,  we  feel  that  Froissard  himself  was  distressed  by  the 
penury  and  the  awkwardness  of  a  language  which,  at  this 
period,  was  deficient  in  copiousness,  harmony,  and  appropriate 
nicety  of  expression.  Such  was  the  French  language  at 
the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century;  and,  as  was  observed  of 
that  of  England,  three  more  must  pass  away  before  it  shall 
have  attained  that  degree  of  maturity  which  the  language  of 
Italy  had  already  acquired. 

Then  what  is  it,  the  reader  may  ask,  in  this  rude  compila- 
tion of  Froissard,  which  can  give  delight? — Not  its  simplicity 
and  artlessness  alone;  for  these  may  be  found  in  the  Latin 
chronicles  of  the  age,  which  we  read,  not  for  the  amusement 
which  they  afford,  so  much  as  for  the  sake  of  the  facts  which 
they  contain.  Even  were  Froissard  faithfully  translated  into 
any  modern  or  ancient  language,  without  the  subtraction,  if 
it  could  possibly  be  avoided,  of  a  single  characteristic  feature, 
he  would  not,  I  think,  be  perused  with  equal  delight.1  I  sup- 
pose his  untutored  homeliness  to  be  left,  which  would 
then  occasion  disgust.  Is  it  that  we  view  him  as  we  do  the 
remains  of  Grecian  elegance  or  of  Roman  grandeur,  or  as  we 
contemplate  the  ruins,  clothed  with  moss  and  ivy,  of  churches, 
abbeys,  or  castles?  Here  association  intervenes,  operating 
upon  the  mind  by  a  train  of  pleasing  reminiscences;  while  the 
chronicle  in  question  is  unmutilated  and  entire  in  every  part. 
But  we  must  recollect  that  an  ingenuous  candour,  a  grateful 
sense  of  benefits,  an  assiduous  solicitude  to  please,  an  honest 
freedom  from  prejudice,  and  an  unwearied  searching  after 
truth,  when  found  in  any  author,  as  they  are  in  Froissard,  are 

1  I  have  seen  little  of  the  splendid  English  translation,  by  Mr.  Jolmes. 
The  best  translation  of  Froissard  is  that  by  Lord  Berners. 


TO  1450.]         INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CLASSICS.  313 

qualities  which  cannot  fail  to  command  the  approbation  and 
fix  the  goodwill  of  the  reader. 

I  have  little  to  say  on  the  state  of  the  Spanish  and  German 
language,  for  as  yet  nothing  worthy  of  notice  had  been  written 
in  either.  The  former  indeed,  which  may  be  called  the 
sister  of  the  Italian  tongue,  sooner  arrived  to  a  certain  degree 
of  maturity  than  the  speech  of  France;  and  an  impediment 
to  its  growth  while  it  wanted  a  Petrarca  or  Boccaccio  might 
be  the  yet  unsettled  state  of  the  kingdom.  In  Germany  an 
undue  preference  to  Latin,  and  in  this  preference  itself  an 
absence  of  taste,  continued  to  oppose  a  barrier  to  improvement. 

This  last  fact  verifies  the  observation  which  I  think  has 
already  been  made,  that  what  in  Italy  produced  the  almost 
instantaneous  revival  of  letters  and  the  perfection  of  its 
tongue,  was  an  admiration  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  authors, 
which  generated  taste,  while  in  other  countries  those  authors 
lay  neglected;  the  language  of  Greece  was  not  understood, 
and  the  Latin  of  the  schools  was  barbarous.  Then  what  in- 
ducement was  there  to  attempt  any  improvement  of  the  vulgar 
tongue,  of  the  defects  of  which  they  were  so  little  sensible? 
Petrarca,  when  his  mind  was  glowing  from  the  perusal  of  the 
works  of  Cicero  or  of  Virgil,  felt  at  once  the  inferiority  of 
his  native  speech,  but  he  had  a  model  before  him  by  which 
to  correct  and  amend  it.  His  genius  surmounted  obstacles, 
and  we  have  seen  what  his  success  was.  The  less  improved 
tastes  of  Chaucer  and  Froissard,  and  of  Spanish  and  German 
writers,  Avere  not  disgusted  with  the  vulgar  idioms  of  their 
respective  countries;  and  therefore  their  progress  to  improve- 
ment, and  from  improvement  to  maturity,  must  await  the 
slow  diffusion  of  a  better  taste,  that  is,  till  the  models  of  excel- 
lence of  which  we  have  been  speaking  shall  have  gained  general 
admiration.  By  an  untoward  tendency,  however,  in  the  con- 
cerns of  man,  this  very  admiration,  absorbing  in  itself  all  the 
energies  of  mind,  will  for  a  time,  as  we  shall  see,  check  the 
effect  which  in  Italy  it  so  fortunately  produced,  and  which 
will  finally  be  extended  to  other  countries. 

I  mentioned  that  after  the  deaths  of  the  illustrious  men 
who  had  revived  the  genuine  literary  taste  in  Italy,  a  succes- 
sion was  ready  to  start  in  the  same  career,  and  to  accomplish 
what  was  left  undone.  And  lo!  exclaims  exultingly  the 
author  so  often  quoted,1  when  the  fifteenth  century  opened, 

1  Storia  della  Lett.  ltd.  vi.  Pref. 


314    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1300 

all  the  cities  with  a  common  ardour  were  engaged  in  giving 
fresh  life  to  letters,  and  in  calling  back  the  arts  to  their  long- 
deserted  seats.  Books  are  everywhere  sought;  journeys  are 
undertaken;  copies  are  compared,  corrected, multiplied;  pub- 
lic libraries  formed;  and  chairs  for  the  Greek  and  Latin  lan- 
guages, richly  endowed  and  filled  by  able  professors,  are 
instituted  in  every  city.  The  misfortunes  of  Greece  compel 
many  men  of  ability  to  take  refuge  in  Italy,  where  they  are 
honourably  received,  and  taught  to  forget  the  calamities  of 
their  country.  The  literary  treasures  of  Greece  were  thus 
more  fully  developed  in  Italy,  and  the  names  of  Plato  and 
Aristotle,  Demosthenes  and  Homer,  rendered  familiar  to  the 
public  ear.  Every  man  of  learning  becomes  acquainted  with 
their  language.  Numerous  academies  were  now  formed, 
scientific  meetings  held,  literary  disputations  proposed;  while 
medals,  inscriptions,  statues,  were  collected  from  every  quarter, 
and  the  mind  was  seized  with  a  passion  for  antiquity  and  a 
thirst  for  erudition.  New  lights  were  thrown  upon  philo- 
sophy and  mathematics,  astronomical  calculations  were  made 
with  more  accuracy,  by  the  help  of  which  navigators  from 
the  same  Italy  soon  discovered  another  world.  Medicine, 
jurisprudence,  and  every  other  science,  advanced  with  the 
same  rapid  step.  Princes,  ministers,  generals  of  armies,  ma- 
gistrates, the  affluent  and  the  great,  eagerly  contended  for  the 
honour  of  cultivating  letters  themselves,  or  of  being  esteemed 
the  patrons  of  genius  and  erudition.  Their  courts  and  palaces, 
unless  illumined  by  the  presence  of  some  learned  man,  seemed 
to  want  a  necessary  decoration.  The  elegant  arts,  painting, 
sculpture,  and  architecture,  rose  at  the  same  time  into  life; 
and  to  crown  the  felicity  of  the  period,  the  art  of  printing 
was  discovered  in  Germany,  and  soon  carried  into  Italy. 

This  is  an  enchanting  view,  nor  is  it  embellished  beyond 
the  reality  of  truth,  whilst  it  evinces  what  the  efforts  of  a  few 
men  can  effect  in  favourable  circumstances.  It  shows,  besides, 
when  I  so  freely  praised  Petrarca  and  Boccaccio,  that  I  did 
not  exaggerate  their  claims  to  the  gratitude  of  posterity. 
The  glory  of  the  fifteenth  century  was  owing  to  their  talents 
and  exertions. 

But  there  is  a  dark  side  to  almost  every  scene,  and  while 
the  man  of  letters  dwells  on  the  glowing  prospect  which  has 
been  laid  before  him,  the  friend  of  humanity  and  of  peace, 


TO  1450.]          COUNCIL  OF  CONSTANCE.  315 

on  perusing  the  annals  of  the  times,1  sees  ample  cause  to 
lament  the  unceasing  broils  by  which  the  states  of  Italy  con- 
tinued to  be  harassed,  and  the  great  schism  to  be  perpetuated. 
In  the  decline  of  literature,  such  commotions  served  to  acce 
lerate  its  fall;  and  on  its  revival  they  might  check,  but  they 
could  not  wholly  suspend  its  progress.  Perhaps  in  some  in- 
stances they  might  generate  a  degree  of  rivalry  by  which  it  was 
promoted.  Having  described  the  civil  state  of  the  country, 
which  was  torn  by  wars,  and  disturbed  by  the  projects  of 
ambition,  the  historian  still  observes:2  "  To  whatever  side  we 
turn  our  eyes,  they  are  sure  to  behold  men  raised  it  should 
seem  to  eminence,  with  no  other  view  than  to  urge  forward 
the  course  of  studies,  and  to  reward  the  labours  of  the  indus- 
trious." He  tells  us  who  these  princes  were,  and  recounts 
their  honourable  achievements.  They  were  men  of  the  same 
families  which  had  patronised  Petrarca,  or  who  walked  in 
their  steps,  in  Milan,  in  Ferrara,  in  Naples,  in  Mantua,  and 
in  other  states  and  cities.  And  let  me  not  forget  the  Medici, 
whom  not  birth,  but  the  proper  use  of  riches,  now  raised  to 
the  head  of  the  Florentine  republic.  The  great  Cosmo,  styled 
il padre  della  patria,  was  at  the  same  time  its  Maecenas;  and 
under  his  fostering  care  and  munificent  patronage,  Florence 
might  justly  be  esteemed  a  second  Athens,  for  its  assemblage 
of  philosophers,  its  literary  contests,  and  its  elegant  arts.  He 
lived  through  more  than  half  the  century;  and  on  his  death 
bequeathed  to  his  immediate  posterity  that  legacy  of  talents 
and  of  virtues  which  have  stamped  immortality  upon  their 
names. 

Rome  alone  did  not  yet  conspire  with  the  general  tenden- 
cies of  the  other  states.  Divided  and  convulsed  by  the  great 
schism,  which  had  now  lasted  twenty  and  two  years,  the 
minds  of  the  leading  churchmen  could  find  little  relish  for 
literary  pursuits;  and  various  means  of  accommodation  had 
been  tried  in  vain.  But  in  1414,  the  council  of  Constance 
met;  and  after  many  efforts,  which  were  distinguished  by 
firmness  and  by  wisdom,  it  finally  deposed  the  rival  pontiffs, 
and  raised  to  the  chair  Otho,  of  the  illustrious  house  of 
Colonna,  under  the  name  of  Martin  V.  Amongst  the  mem- 
bers of  this  council  were  men  of  eminent  talents,  of  whom 
not  the  least  celebrated  was  John  Gerson,  the  chancellor  of 

1  See  Annal.  d'ltalia,  j»  2  Storia  della  Letter.  ltd.  i.  2. 


316         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1300 

the  university  of  Paris,  and  the  ambassador  of  the  French 
king.  In  an  assembly  of  the  fathers  before  Sigismund,  the 
king  of  the  Romans,  Gerson  delivered  an  oration,  the  leading 
drift  of  which  was  to  establish  the  superiority  of  general 
councils  over  the  Roman  bishops,  and  which,  in  the  fourth 
session,  proved  the  ground-work  of  the  decree  in  which  that 
doctrine  was  solemnly  denned.  It  was  not  new  to  the 
French  prelates;  but  that  it  should  have  been  admitted  by 
the  general  body  of  representatives,  evidently  proves  that 
they  had  made  no  small  progress  in  the  knowledge  of  primi- 
tive truths.  The  correction  of  abuses,  in  other  words  the 
reformation  of  the  church  in  its  head  and  members,  had  long 
been  the  rallying  cry  of  Europe,  for  the  accomplishment  of 
which  this  synod  had  been  convened;  but  when  it  rose  little 
had  been  done.  This  argued  a  defect  of  firmness,  fully  sen- 
sible as  the  council  was  of  the  multitudinous  evils  which 
oppressed  the  Christian  world:  while  the  death  of  John  Huss, 
and  of  his  disciple  Jerom  of  Prague,  no  less  cleai'ly  evinced 
what  were  the  sanguinary  laws  of  discipline  by  which  the 
fathers  of  Constance  were  unworthily  influenced.1 

Martin,  fortunately  or  unfortunately,  escaped  from  Con- 
stance with  his  prerogative  untouched ;  and  was  trium- 
phantly received  into  the  eternal  city,  the  concerns  of  which 
and  of  the  church  he  administered  during  fourteen  years. 
It  is  admitted  that  literature  owed  few  obligations  to  his 
memory;  but  the  Roman  people,  says  the  historian,2  lamented 
his  death,  as  if  their  city  and  the  church  of  God  had  lost 
their  best  and  only  parent.  To  him,  it  is  added,  that  church 
was  indebted  for  her  union,  Italy  for  her  repose,  Rome  for 
her  renovation.  When  he  entered  her  walls  his  sight  was 
everywhere  grieved  by  the  spectacle  of  ruin  and  desolation: 
penury  dwelt  in  her  houses;  filth  encumbered  her  streets; 
whilst  her  temples  were  deserted  and  falling  into  decay.  He 
was  endowed,  I  believe,  with  many  virtues;  and  to  this  day, 
the  Romans,  looking  with  reverence  to  his  tomb,  repeat  the 
flattering  inscription  which  tells  them  that  Martin  was  tem- 
porum  suorum  felicitas.  He  was  succeeded  by  Eugenius  IV. 

The  reformation,  which  could  not  be  effected  at  Constance, 
was  referred  to  another  council,  which  met  first  at  Pavia,  and 

1  See  the  history  of  this  council  in  any  ecclesiastical  author,  particularly 
L'Eufant. 

2  Platina  de  Vitis  Pontif.  in  Mart.  V. 


TO  1450.]          COUNCILS  OF  BASIL  AND  FLORENCE.  317 

then  at  Sienna,  under  Martin,  and  finally,  under  Eugenius  at 
Basil,  in  1431.  "To  unite  the  long-divided  churches  of  the 
East  and  West,  and  to  reform,  in  its  head  and  members,  the 
universal  body  of  the  church,"  were  the  professed  objects  of 
the  meeting:  and  if,  at  Constance,  we  admired  the  enlarged 
views  with  which  its  synod  was  animated,  the  same  views, 
under  the  superintendence  of  cardinal  Julian  Cesarini,  pre- 
vailed at  Basil,  influenced  by  an  eager  and  manly  resolution 
to  accomplish  all  the  purposes  which  had  called  them  toge- 
ther. But  we  know  the  unsuccessful  issue  of  their  endea- 
vours; and  that,  after  many  years  of  incessant  contests  with 
Eugenius,  they  finally  suspended  their  deliberations  in  1443; 
whflst  the  pontiff  had,  at  the  same  time,  held  another  synod 
at  Florence,  in  which  the  wished-for  union  with  the  Greeks 

but  without  any  principle  which  could  ensure  its  duration 

— was  accomplished.1 

This  long  series  of  discussion  and  of  strife,  though  pro- 
ductive of  moral  evil,  had  some  salutary  influence  in  enlarging 
the  understanding,  in  turning  it  to  scientific  ^  inquiries,  and 
in  introducing  into  theology,  and  the  questions  connected 
with  it,  a  more  severe  and  critical  spirit  of  research.  This 
spirit  tended  to  conduct  the  inquirer  to  the  ancient  sources  of 
pure  knowledge;  and  at  Florence  in  particular,  where  many 
learned  Greeks  were  present,  the  Latins  would  be  compelled 
to  admire  and  to  emulate  their  erudition.  Eugenius  has  in- 
curred much  censure  by  his  conduct  to  the  fathers  of  Basil, 
but  his  successful  union  of  the  Greeks  diffused  a  lustre  over 
his  name,  and  his  talents  enabled  him  to  maintain  his  station, 
and  to  brave  the  reiterated  assaults  of  the  synod.  He  must 
likewise  take  his  place  among  those  pontiffs  who  have  been 
deemed  the  patrons  of  letters.2  Many  learned  men  fre- 
quented his  court,  to  whom  he  was  a  liberal  benefactor;  and 
in  speaking  of  them,  he  was  sometimes  heard  to  say,  that  if 
their  talents  were  admired,  their  resentment  should  also  be 
feared,  as  it  could  seldom  be  incurred  with  impunity.  It 
\vas  Eugenius  who  conferred  the  purple  on  Bessariou,  the 
celebrated  metropolitan  of  Nice,  who  at  Florence  had 
espoused  the  Latin  creed,  and  attached  himself  to  the  for- 
tunes of  Rome. 

The  dissensions  which  the  council  of  Basil  had  occasioned, 

i  See  the  writers  on  Church-history.  2  Platina  de  Vit.  Pontiff. 


318         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1300 

and  which  Eugenius,  himself  a  party,  was  not  able  to  accom- 
modate, could  not  long  withstand  the  gentle  spirit  of  his  suc- 
cessor. This  successor  was  Nicolas  V.,  who  to  uncommon 
learning  added  a  sincere  love  of  peace;  and  it  is  with 
pleasure  that  I  record  the  assemblage  of  talents  and  of  vir- 
tues by  which  he  was  distinguished.  Born  of  humble 
parents,  he  owed  his  fortune  to  his  industry.  By  the  dili- 
gence which  he  exhibited,  chiefly  in  the  schools  of  Bologna, 
he  acquired  reputation;  secured  patronage;  and  became 
intimately  acquainted  with  many  literary  characters.  His  - 
correspondence  with  these  now  commenced  with  that  avidity 
for  knowledge,  and  that  eagerness  to  extend  its  boundaries, 
which  marked  the  general  progress  of  his  life.  What  he 
could  spare  from  his  necessary  expenses  was  devoted  to  the 
purchase  of  books;  and  in  the  transcription  and  embellish- 
ment of  these  he  was  not  restrained  by  any  considerations 
of  parsimony.  Attached  to  the  family  of  cardinal  Albergati, 
he  accompanied  him  in  various  embassies,  and  seldom  returned 
without  bringing  back  with  him  copies  of  such  works,  ancient 
and  modern,  as  were  not  known  in  Italy.  The  titles  of  some 
of  these  are  mentioned  by  his  biographer,1  who  adds,  that 
there  was  no  Latin  author  with  whose  writings  he  was  unac- 
quainted. This  enabled  him  to  be  useful  in  the  arrangement 
of  many  libraries  which  were  formed  at  this  period;  and  it  is 
particularly  mentioned,  that  he  lent  his  assistance  to  the 
great  Cosmo  de'  Medici.  For  this  assistance,  continues 
the  historian,  literary  men  were  much  indebted  to  him,  and 
for  the  lustre  which  his  labours  diffused  over  books  and  their 
authors. 

Such  was  the  high  fame  of  Thomas  da  Sarzana,  embellished 
by  signal  virtues,  and  confirmed  by  great  experience  in  the 
management  of  affairs.  He  was  promoted  in  1444  to  the  see 
of  Bologna,  and  soon  after  this  made  cardinal.  In  1447  he 
succeeded  to  the  pontifical  chair;  an  event  which,  when  the 
character  of  the  man  and  the  circumstances  of  the  times  are 
considered,  was  peculiarly  auspicious  to  the  cause  of  letters. 
The  countenance  of  the  first  pastor  was  alone  wanting  to 
complete  their  triumph.  I  could  relate  the  joy  which  was 
expressed,  and  the  gratulations  which  were  poured  in  from 
many  quarters,  whilst  Home  saw  her  streets  crowded  by  the 

1  Vespasiano.  Scrip.  Eer.  Jtal.  xxv. 


TO   1450.]  POPE  NICHOLAS  V.  319 

votaries  of  learning,  and  her  court  become  the  centre  of 
science.  The  first  care  of  Nicolas,  however,  agreeably  to  the 
duties  of  his  office,  was  to  give  union  to  the  church,  and  peace 
to  Italy;  after  the  accomplishment  of  which  he  could  direct 
his  thoughts,  undisturbed  by  painful  recollections,  to  such 
plans  as  might  be  suggested  for  the  promotion  of  letters,  whilst 
he  might  enjoy  the  society  of  the  learned.  Among  these, 
who  at  this  period  visited  Rome,  I  find  the  names  of  the  emi- 
nent scholars  with  whom  Italy  abounded,  all  of  whom  were 
received  by  the  pontiff  with  unfeigned  courtesy.  Some  of 
them  were  raised  to  offices,  and  others  experienced  his  muni- 
ficent liberality. 

The  year  1450  was  the  celebration  of  the  jubilee.  It  is 
known  what  a  vast  concourse  there  is  on  these  occasions  from 
all  parts  of  Christendom  to  the  holy  city;  and  the  historian 
observes,  that  no  time  ever  witnessed  a  greater  concourse  than 
the  present.  Wealth  flowed  in,  and  the  treasury  was  reple- 
nished. "  Should  I  ever  possess  riches,"  Nicolas  had  often 
repeated  when  he  was  indigent,  "  I  would  expend  them  in 
building  and  in  the  purchase  of  books."  The  wished-for  time 
was  come,  and  he  was  true  to  his  word.  Since  the  popes  had 
returned  from  Avignon,  some  works  had  been  undertaken  for 
the  reparation  of  the  city,  which  the  feuds  of  the  schism  in- 
terrupted; and  after  the  council  of  Constance,  Martin  gene- 
rously resumed  the  labour,  which  Eugenius  at  intervals  con- 
tinued.1 With  equal  ardour,  and  with  more  abundant  means, 
Nicolas  now  began  to  erect,  to  repair,  and  to  beautify, 

"  Restituit  mores,  msenia,  templa,  domos."2 

No  expense  was  spared  in  the  purchase  of  books,  and  where 
originals  could  not  be  procured,  copies  were  directed  to  be 
made.  His  transcribers  were  everywhere  employed;  whilst 
men,  versed  in  the  language  and  literature  of  Greece,  were 
invited  to  translate  the  most  useful  and  classical  works. 
Poggio  undertook  Diodorus  Siculus;  Lorenzo  Valla,  Thucy- 
dides;  and  Filelfo,  the  poems  of  Homer.  I  have  named  three 
of  the  first  scholars  of  the  age;  and  their  labours  were  muni- 
ficently rewarded.  Of  some  of  these  and  of  other  works  ver- 
sions had  already  been  made;  but  they  were  barbarous  and 
unfaithful.  Strabo,  Polybius,  and  Xenophon,  with  other 

1  Plathia  de  Vit.  Pontif.  Donatus  Roma  Vit.  ac  Receus. 

2  Ibid. 


320          LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1300 

authors,  were  also  taught  to  speak  the  language  of  Rome.  I 
hardly  need  remark,  that  Nicolas  was  not  unmindful  of  the 
fathers  and  ecclesiastical  writers  of  the  same  country.  These 
were  translated,  or  former  versions  were  improved. 

Is  the  reader  in  the  meantime  aware,  that  I  am  speaking 
of  what°was  accomplished  within  the  space  of  a  few  years?  for 
the  number  eight  measured  the  whole  pontificate  of  Nicolas. 
And  from  the  celebration  of  the  jubilee  how  short  had  been 
the  period. 

It  is  acknowledged,1  that  hitherto  the  Vatican,  or  pontifi- 
cal library,  had  been  scantily  furnished,  when,  by  the  means 
which  I  have  succinctly  mentioned,  Nicolas  added  to  it  five 
thousand  volumes;  and  had  his  life  been  prolonged,  he  intended 
to  have  continued  his  collection  for  the  general  use  of  the 
Roman  court.  He  was  sedulously  employed,  and  marking 
with  satisfaction  the  progress  of  his  labours,  when  the  news, 
which  astounded  Europe,  arrived,  that  the  capital  of  the 
Grecian  empire  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Turks!  The  melan- 
choly event  is  said  to  have  preyed  upon  the  gentle  spirit  of 
Nicolas,  and  helped  to  terminate  his  days  in  the  spring  of  the 
year  1455. 2 

I  should  pity  the  man  who  has  not  contemplated  with  de- 
light the  varied  proceedings  of  Nicolas,  while — not  to  increase 
and  strengthen  his  prerogative,  not  to  enlarge  his  territory, 
not  to  enrich  his  dependents,  but  to  provide  the  most  effica- 
cious means  for  the  extirpation  of  ignorance — he  expended 
those  treasures  which  a  mistaken  piety  had  accumulated  round 
him,  and  which  he  well  knew  must  cease  to  flow  when  the 
light  which  he  was  eliciting  should  have  more  fully  diffused 
its  rays. 

From  the  elevation  to  the  papal  chair  of  Nicolas,  a  man  of 
low  birth,  who  was  recommended  only  by  his  learning  and  his 
virtues,  I  may  be  allowed  to  observe  on  the  constitution  of 
the  Roman  papacy,  that  no  scheme  for  the  encouragement  of 
talents  was  ever  more  wisely  devised.  At  that  time  it  was  of 
little  moment  from  what  country  the  candidate  came.  When 
the  intrigues  of  faction  could  be  suspended,  personal  merit 
was  alone  the  object  of  preference.  Where  the  alluring  career 
of  preferment  was  thus  thrown  open  to  general  competition,  a 

1  Storia  della  Let.  Ital.  vi.  -i. 

-  See  Platina  de  Vit.  Pout,  but  more  particularly  Vespasiano,  the  friend 
and  biographer  of  Nicolas,  inter  Rerum  Ital.  Scrip,  xxv. 


TO  1450.]       PATRONAGE  OF  LEARNING  BY  THE  POPES.  321 

splendid  assemblage  of  talents  would  soon  be  gathered  round 
the  Roman  throne;  whilst,  from  the  time  of  Nicolas  to  our 
own,  with  the  single  exception  of  Alexander  VI.,  who  was 
himself  an  encourager  of  letters,  no  pontiff  will  be  named 
whom  we  can  justly  load  with  the  reproach  of  ignorance  or  of 
vice.  It  may,  on  the  contrary,  be  said,  that  they  were  often 
the  most  virtuous,  and  not  seldom  the  most  learned  prelates 
of  the  age.  Rome  and  Europe  can  testify  how  much  they 
patronised  literature  and  the  arts.  In  the  tranquil  bosom  of 
that  instructive  city,  which  was  frequented  by  the  studious 
and  the  inquisitive  of  all  nations,  emulation  stimulated  re- 
search, and  the  means  of  information  were  sufficient  to  satisfy 
the  most  ardent  curiosity.  Cardinals  and  prelates,  whom 
various  acquirements  had  raised  to  these  dignities,  exempt 
from  the  anxieties  of  life  and  the  demands  of  a  rising  progeny, 
could  in  no  pursuits  expend  their  wealth  so  decorously  as  in 
the  encouragement  of  the  polite  arts,  nor  pass  their  time  with 
so  much  pleasure  as  in  the  conversation  of  the  learned;  nor 
could  they  employ  their  talents  in  any  measures  at  once  so 
gratifying  to  themselves  and  so  advantageous  to  others,  as  in 
adding  to  the  mass  of  knowledge  by  the  publication  of  books, 
or  in  diffusing  science  by  extensive  correspondence.  That 
this  is  not  a  fancied  sketch  of  Rome  and  of  Roman  polity, 
after  Nicolas  had  imbibed  the  love  of  letters,  which  he  trans- 
mitted to  his  successors,  will  be  readily  admitted. 

Whilst  Rome  was  animated  by  the  labours  of  Nicolas,  and 
during  the  years  which  preceded  his  elevation,  other  indivi- 
duals, both  in  public  and  private  stations,  had  been  engaged 
in  similar  pursuits.  When  such  a  general  enthusiasm  had 
been  excited,  that  the  discovery  of  a  new  volume  caused  the 
warmest  acclamations,  it  will  readily  be  conceived  that  jour- 
neys would  be  undertaken,  money  liberally  expended,  and  no 
researches  spared.  It  may  be  thought,  indeed,  as  so  many 
years  had  now  been  spent  in  the  investigation,  that  copies  of 
at  least  all  our  Latin  authors  were  in  the  hands  of  the  curious, 
and  that  nothing  more  was  requisite  than  to  multiply  these, 
and  to  render  them  more  correct.  The  fact,  however,  is,  that 
many  single  books,  or  detached  parts  of  authors,  were  alone 
possessed;  and  this  will  be  accounted  for  by  the  barbarous 
neglect  which  such  works  had  so  long  experienced,  by  the  dis- 
persion that  had  separated  many,  and  by  the  art  of  transcrip- 
tion itself;  which,  besides  being  in  a  high  degree  irksome  and 


322         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1300 

laborious,  was  subject  to  the  caprice  of  individuals,  and  the 
fluctuation  of  events.  We  may  then  be  rather  surprised  that 
any  entire  copies  of  the  profane  works  of  antiquity  should 
have  escaped  through  the  wreck  of  ages. 

We  are  much  indebted  to  the  scrutinizing  research  of  the 
learned  Florentine,  Poggio  Bracciolini.  In  1414  he  accom- 
panied the  Roman  court  to  the  synod  of  Constance  ;  on  which 
occasion  he  had  an  opportunity  of  visiting  the  neighbouring 
convents,  and  particularly  that  of  St.  Gall,  in  whose  library 
he  discovered,  at  the  bottom  of  a  dark  tower,  amongst  a  mass 
of  other  writings,  a  complete  copy  of  the  Institutions  of 
Quintilian,  three  books  and  a  part  of  the  fourth  of  Valerius 
Flaccus,  and  the  Commentaries  or  Expositions  of  Quintus 
Asconius  on  eight  orations  of  Cicero.  In  a  letter  to  a  friend,1 
after  expatiating  upon  the  excellencies  of  Quintilian,  and  de- 
scribing the  mutilated  condition  of  the  Italian  copies,  he 
relates  the  history  of  this  fortunate  discovery  :  "  We  went,'' 
says  he,  "  to  the  monastery,  where,  amongst  a  confused  heap 
of  books  which  it  would  be  tedious  to  enumerate,  we  disco- 
vered Quintilian,  still  whole  and  sound,  but  buried  in  filth 
and  dust.  The  books  indeed  were  in  a  library,  not  disposed 
in  a  manner  suitable  to  their  character,  but  thrust  into  an 
obscure  and  loathsome  dungeon  at  the  bottom  of  a  tower, 
into  which  convicted  malefactors  would  not  have  been  cast. 
If  further  searches  were  made  into  the  receptacles  in  which 
these  barbarians  confine  our  noble  ancestors,  I  doubt  not 
but  that  other  works  might  be  discovered  which  we  consider 
as  irretrievably  lost." 

Poggio  discovered  other  works  before  his  return  to  Italy. 
These  were  Lactantius  de  opificio  Dei,  the  Architecture  of 
Vitruvius,  Priscian  on  Grammar,  and  a  further  list,  with 
some  of  which  we  are  unacquainted;  Lucretius,  Silius 
Italicus,  Ammiarius  Marcellinus,  Nonius  Marcellus,  Manilius 
Astronomus,  Lucius  Septimius,  and  others.  To  these  he 
afterwards  added  some  orations  of  Cicero,  and  his  treatises 
de  Finibus  and  de  Legibus.  The  Lucretius  was  not  com- 
plete, nor  was  the  Quintilian  free  from  many  errors.  "  These 
works,"  he  exultingly  observes,  "  I  saved  from  the  German 
and  Gaulish  (St.  Gall)  prisons,  and  restored  them  to  the 
light  of  clay." 

1  Ep.  ad  Johan.  Amic.  inter  Scrip.  Eer.  Ital.  xx. 


TO   1450.]  FORMATION  OF  LIBRARIES.  323 

But  Poggio  was  not  without  associates  in  his  researches, 
which  were  stimulated  by  the  animating  praises  and  exhorta- 
tions of  many  friends,  whilst  money  was  freely  contributed 
by  the  opulent.  His  own  ardour  was  unextinguishable. 
"  Not  the  severity  of  winter,"  says  one  of  his  admirers,  "  not 
the  depth  of  snow,  not  the  length  nor  ruggedness  of  roads 
could  stop  his  progress."  But  of  this  friend  he  afterwards 
complained  for  not  returning  to  him  some  works  which  he 
had  lent,  and  he  vents  with  much  acrimony  his  indig- 
nation against  those  who  withheld  from  his  own  and  the 
public  inspection  such  volumes  as  were  in  their  possession.1 
But  when  the  pecuniary  value  of  books  was  becoming 
enormous,  when  to  seek  after  them  was  the  occupation  of 
the  learned  and  the  opulent,  and  when  to  possess  them  was 
deemed  the  highest  felicity,  we  cannot  be  surprised  that 
means  which  were  not  always  honourable  were  employed  to 
acquire  or  to  detain  so  rich  a  treasure. 

From  the  neglected  and  squalid  state  in  which  the  account 
of  Poggio  shows  certain  works  to  have  been  found,  and  from 
the  paucity  even  of  such  copies,  two  inferences  must  neces- 
sarily be  made:  1.  That  the  monks,  though  their  convents 
had  accidentally  served  as  receptacles  of  books,  set  no  value 
upon  the  treasures  which  they  contained;  2.  That  their  hands 
had  not  been  very  strenuously  occupied  in  transcription.  It 
may  be  allowed  that  they  did  transcribe,  but  very  different 
works  from  those  of  classical  antiquity,  for  we  have  just  seen 
what  was  found  "  in  the  great  collection"  of  St.  Gall. 

It  will  not  be  requisite  to  pursue  this  subject  further  in 
recounting  the  happy  achievements  of  private  men,  or  the 
noble  efforts  of  others,  in  collecting  and  forming  libraries. 
Every  city  saw  its  treasures  of  literature  and  science  increase, 
its  scholars  emulous  of  new  fame,  and  crowds  of  able  pro- 
fessors prepared  to  conduct  the  infant  mind  into  all  the 
paths  of  elegant  learning.  The  historian  of  Italian  literature 
fully  develops  the  subject  in  all  its  parts;2  and  he  may  be 
allowed  the  gratification  of  an  honest  pride,  when  he  asserts 
tli;it  Europe  was  indebted  to  his  countrymen  for  the  recovery 
of  many  ancient  works  which  otherwise,  perhaps,  would  have 
been  entirely  lost.  Almost  all  the  classical  authors,  he  adds, 

1  See  Poggii  Vita.  Scrip.  Rerum  Ital.  xx.      There  is  an  admirable  Life 
of  Poggio,  by  the  llev.  W.  Shepherd,  of  Gateacre. 
2  See  t.  vi. 

Y2 


324    LITER  ART  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1300 

were  discovered  either  in  Italy  or  by  the  researches  of  the 
Italians,  by  whom  they  were  revised  and  amended  with  as 
much  accuracy  as  the  infancy  of  criticism  would  permit,  and 
by  whom  those  splendid  and  copious  libraries  were  first 
formed,  which,  even  at  this  day,  astonish  the  eyes  of  the 
beholder.  Let  us  turn  to  Greece  and  the  Grecian  language. 

The  ardour  which  Italy  exhibited  in  rescuing  the  relics  of 
elegant  literature  from  oblivion  Avas  not  confined  to  those  of 
our  Latin  ancestors.  We  beheld  the  attempts  of  Petrarca 
and  Boccaccio  to  revive  among  their  countrymen  the  study 
of  the  Greek  language;  and  before  the  close  of  the  century, 
Manuel  Chrysoloras,  pressed  by  the  entreaties  of  many 
learned  men,  exchanged  the  schools  of  Byzantium  for  those 
of  Italy.  He  first  taught  at  Florence,  then  in  Milan  and  in 
other  cities;  by  which  means  a  general  taste  was  excited  for 
Grecian  literature,  and  men  of  high  classical  eminence  were 
numbered  amongst  his  scholars.  The  Tuscan  capital  was  ever 
foremost  in  the  career  of  learning;  but  after  the  celebration 
of  her  council  in  1439,  which  was  attended  by  so  many 
learned  Greeks,  not  a  few  of  whom  remained  within  her 
walls,  she  might  justly  be  regarded  as  the  Athens  of  Italy. 
In  the  meantime  other  scholars,  flying  from  the  distresses  of 
Constantinople,  sought  a  retreat  in  the  same  hospitable  land. 
Amongst  these  persons  was  Theodore  Gaza,  a  man  of  high 
endowments,  and  Demetrius  Chalcondyles,  a  native  of 
Athens,  and  others,  whose  names  are  recorded.1 

But  perhaps  Cardinal  Bessarion,  whom  I  have  men- 
tioned, contributed  most  by  his  virtues  and  his  erudition  to 
diffuse  a  just  admiration  of  his  native  literature.  Promoted 
to  high  offices,  and  employed  by  successive  popes  in  legations 
and  embassies,  he  became,  from  the  circumstances  of  his 
origin,  an  object  of  peculiar  interest,  whilst  the  elegant 
facility  of  his  Latin  diction,  which  was  surpassed  only  by  the 
melody  of  his  vernacular  speech,  recommended  him  to  the 
intercourse  of  the  learned.  His  proficiency  in  the  Italian 
tongue  was  probably  equally  admirable.  Though  hated  by 
the  Greeks,  whose  cause  he  had  deserted,  he  manifested 
singular  kindness  towards  such  of  his  countrymen  as  with- 
drew to  Italy,  and  patronised  their  labours.  Literature  in 

1  See  Tirabosclii,  \i.,  who  examines  tltis  interesting  part  of  history  with 
inimitable  accuracy;  also  Bib.  Greec.  passim. 


TO  1450.]        CULTIVATION  OF  THE  GREEK  LANGUAGE.  325 

all  its  branches  was  his  delight.  Bologna  felt  the  effects  of 
his  munificence.  In  Rome  he  formed  an  academic  society, 
composed  of  the  eminent  scholars  of  both  countries,  who  met 
at  his  house  and  discussed  various  points  of  learning.  To 
his  beloved  Venice,  of  which  city  he  was  a  patrician,  he 
presented  his  library,  which  was  peculiarly  select,  and  on 
which  he  had  expended  thirty  thousand  golden  crowns.  His 
defence  of  Plato,  whose  doctrines  had  been  attacked  by  some 
learned  Greeks,  formed  another  epoch  in  the  life  of  Bessarion. 
This  defence,  which  was  aided  by  the  lectures  of  some  public 
professors  of  the  Greek  "school,  kindled  that  enthusiasm  out 
of  which  sprung  the  Platonic  Academy,  which  at  this  time 
was  so  renowned  in  Tuscany,  and  particularly  in  the  house 
of  the  Medici.  With  what  congratulations  would  the  learned 
have  received  Bessarion  as  the  successor  to  Nicolas  V.  in 
the  papal  chair,  had  the  suffrages  of  the  cardinals  not  been 
biassed  in  the  ensuing  conclave;  but  prejudices  prevailed, 
and  they  preferred  Alfonso  Borgia,  a  native  of  Spain, 
though  in  his  seventy-eighth  year.  The  cardinal  died  in 
1472,  leaving  behind  him  many  writings  in  Greek  and 
Latin.1 

To  admire  and  to  cultivate  the  Greek  tongue  was  become 
so  much  the  fashion,  that  not  to  know  it,  says  the  historian,2 
was  considered  as  a  mark  of  ignorance  which  was  singularly 
debasing  in  every  pretender  to  letters.  I  have  before  me  a 
list  of  more  than  threescore  scholars,  to  which  others  might 
be  added,  who  were  really  masters  of  the  language.  And  of 
these  many,  no  longer  requiring  the  aid  of  the  emigrant 
Greeks,  became  themselves  professors,  publicly  delivering 
lectures  on  both  languages,  and  teaching  in  both  the  rules  of 
elegant  composition.  Of  these  were  Guarino  da  Verona, 
John  Aurispa,  Vittorino  da  Feltre,  Francis  Filelfo,  and  Lo- 
renzo Valla,  who  all  taught  in  different  cities  at  the  same 
time,  and  were  highly  celebrated.  But  the  moral  characters 
of  all  did  not  keep  pace  with  their  intellectual  endowments ; 
and  some  disgrace  was  brought  on  the  cause  of  letters  by  the 
personal  altercations  which  jealousy  conspired  to  foment.3 
The  censure  is  meant  more  directly  to  apply  to  Filelfo  and 

1  Platinn,  Pancgvr.  in  Bessarion.  Brucker,  Hist.  Phil.  iv.  Hodius  de 
Oviec.  lllust. 

-  Storia  della  Let.  Ital.  vi.  iii.     Bib.  G.  v.  43,  x. 
3  See  Tiraboschi,  ibid. 


326    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1300 

Lorenzo  Valla,  to  whom  may  well  be  joined  the  Florentine 
whom  I  praised,  Poggio  Bracciolini.  Whilst  their  deep 
learning  and  various  literature  presented  to  the  Italian  mind 
the  noblest  productions  of  former  days,  and  familiarized  the 
ear  to  their  harmony;  the  harshest  sounds  of  discord,  which 
were  heard  in  bitter  invective  and  in  mutual  recriminations, 
ceased  not  to  disgust  the  pacific  and  sober  men  of  every 
party. 

If  the  days  of  these  professors,  Greek  and  Latin,  were 
generally  spent  in  public  lectures,  or  in  giving  private  in- 
structions, they  still  found  time  for  translation,  and  as  long  as 
Homer,  says  another  Italian  writer,1  Herodotus,  Thucydides, 
Xenophon,  Polybius,  Plutarch,  and  the  other  poets  and  his- 
torians of  Greece  shall  be  read,  so  long  will  be  remembered 
the  names  of  George  of  Trebizonde,  Chalcondyles,  Argyro- 
pulus,  Theodore  Gaza,  among  the  Greeks;  and  among  the 
Latins,  of  Guarino,  Ambrose  of  Camaldoli,  Lorenzo  Valla, 
Poggio,  and  Leonardo  Aretino.  Even  at  this  time  the 
learned  critic  peruses  their  versions  with  pleasure. 

The  copies  of  Greek  authors  were  now  become  numerous. 
As  the  emigrants  successively  arrived,  they  naturally  brought 
with  them  a  commodity  which  bore  a  high  price,  and  these 
copies  were  multiplied  by  transcriptions.  Cardinal  Bessarion, 
whose  means  were  so  ample,  added  to  his  stock,  and  early  in 
the  century  three  Latins  who  have  been  mentioned,  Guarino 
da  Verona,  John  Aurispa,  and  Francis  Filelfo,  purposely 
made  a  journey  to  Constantinople,  and  returned  with  a  rich 
supply.  Their  first  object  was  to  perfect  themselves  in  the 
Greek  language,  of  which  there  were  still  but  few  masters 
in  the  West.2 

These  were  instances  of  wonderful  ardour,  and  no  recital 
could  so  well  mark  the  strong  propensities  of  the  age  as  the 
history  of  the  lives  of  its  scholars.  Gianozzo  Manetti,  a 
Florentine,  born  of  an  ancient  and  noble  family  late  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  was  designed  for  commerce,  a  profession 
to  which  the  Medici  gave  consequence,  but  his  inclination  was 
turned  to  letters.  These  he  began  to  cultivate  with  unre- 
mitting eagerness,  and  we  soon  find  in  his  hands  the  works  of 
Virgil,  of  Terence,  and  of  Cicero.  Thus  grounded  in  the 

1  Denina.  Vicende  della  Letterat.  i.  261. 

2  Maffei  Verona  Illustrat.  11.     Storia  della  Lett.  Ital.  vi.  i.  4. 


TO  1450.]  GIANOZZO  MANETTI.  327 

purity  and  elegance  of  language,  he  proceeded  through  the 
rules  of  rhetoric  to  those  of  logic,  and  availing  himself  of  the 
helps  which  were  afforded  by  a  learned  society  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, he  proceeded  under  their  tuition  into  the  walks  of 
philosophy,  and  drank  deep  of  the  stream  of  science.  Theology 
next  engaged  his  attention.  This  study  he  said,  as  best 
adapted  to  the  condition  of  man,  should  end  only  with  life; 
and  he  reposed  in  the  contemplation  of  the  divine  nature,  and 
the  moral  truths  of  religion.  The  great  Austin  was  here  his 
favourite  author,  some  of  whose  books  his  memory  was  suffi- 
ciently retentive  to  repeat. 

Though  he  was  so  richly  stored  with  learning,  we  may  now 
view  him  again  occupied  with  the  elements  of  language,  and 
studying  Greek  under  Ambrose  of  Camaldoli.  But  his  progress 
was  astonishing;  for  it  is  related,  that  taking  into  his  hand  a 
book  of  Aristotle,  he  could  render  it  into  Latin  without  hesi- 
tation. Nine  years  had  been  thus  passed,  when,  with  a  be- 
coming ambition,  he  broke  from  the  severe  retirement  of 
study,  and  appeared  in  public,  mixing  in  the  learned  societies 
which  met  at  stated  places,  and  engaging  in  their  scientific 
disputations.  The  scheme  of  these  societies  was  taken  from 
the  walks  and  academic  conversations  which  were  once  so 
celebrated  among  the  sages  of  Athens.  On  these  occasions, 
Latin  was  the  language  which  was  spoken;  and  it  was  re- 
marked of  Manetti,  that  upon  every  subject  of  discussion 
he  delivered  himself  with  fluency  and  elegance.  Leonardo 
Aretino  was  once  his  antagonist  on  a  point  of  philosophy.  It 
was  observed  that  Manetti  had  the  advantage,  and  the  ap- 
plauses were  loud  in  his  favour,  which  so  irritated  the  former, 
who  had  long  enjoyed  a  secure  pre-eminence,  that  he  gave 
vent  to  his  rage  in  a  torrent  of  petulance  and  insult.  The 
next  morning,  however,  he  waited  on  Manetti:  "  You  are  well 
revenged,"  said  he  to  him,  "for  my  behaviour  of  yesterday: 
I  have  passed  a  sleepless  night." 

His  next  study  was  the  Hebrew  language;  in  order  to 
acquire  which,  he  took  a  Jew  into  his  house,  and  afterwards 
engaged  another  master  of  the  same  nation,  with  whom  he 
read  the  sacred  writings  in  the  original  for  five  hours  each 
day,  and  some  ponderous  commentators.  Nor  did  this  suffice. 
We  afterwards  find  him  covenanting  with  two  Greeks  and  a 
Hebrew  to  live  with  him,  on  condition  that  each  should 


328         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.    1300 

converse  with  him  in  his  own  tongue.  He  thus  became 
familiarized  with  the  languages  of  Palestine  and  of  Greece. 

I  speak  not  of  his  exalted  moral  qualities,  nor  of  the  esti- 
mation in  which  he  was  held  by  his  fellow-citizens,  who  raised 
him  to  the  highest  offices,  nor  of  the  regard  of  foreign  princes 
•whom  he  visited  in  his  embassies.  That  he  was  dear  to 
Nicolas  V.,  in  whose  court  he  resided  when  once  exiled  from 
his  country,  the  reader  will  readily  believe;  and  of  him 
Alphonsus,  king  of  Naples,  was  heard  to  say,  that  "  were  he 
reduced  to  a  single  loaf,  he  would  divide  it  with  Manetti." 
In  this  court  he  spent  the  three  last  years  of  his  life,  loaded 
with  favours  by  Alphonsus  and  his  son  Ferdinand,  and  prin- 
cipally engaged  in  writing.  His  works  comprise  a  variety  of 
subjects,  moral,  historical,  biographical,  and  oratorical,  besides 
versions  from  the  Hebrew  and  the  Greek.  From  the  first  he 
translated  the  Psalms,  from  the  second  many  books  of  the 
New  Testament,  as  likewise  some  treatises  of  Aristotle.  We 
are  told  that  it  was  his  design  if  death  had  not  prevented  its 
execution,  to  have  formed  a  library  in  his  native  city,  which 
should  be  open  to  all  comers,  and  serve  as  a  receptacle  for  his 
own  compositions;  for  he  lamented  that  the  works  of  many 
modern  writers,  from  the  want  of  such  precaution,  were  often 
irreparably  lost.  Manetti  died  at  Naples  in  1459,  than  whom 
a  greater  man  had  not  been  seen,  whether  we  regard  his 
virtues  or  his  erudition.1 

The  reader  who  may  wish  to  be  more  acquainted  with  the 
characters  and  writings  of  those  scholars,  who  like  Manetti 
reflected  a  lustre  to  the  present  period,  and  whose  names  I 
have  incidentally  mentioned,  cannot  be  at  a  loss  for  ample 
sources  of  information.  In  referring  to  these  he  will  find  that 
in  grammar  and  the  art  of  rhetoric,  chiefly  excelled  Guarino 
de  Verona,  John  Aurispa,  Vittorino  de  Feltre,  Gasparino 
Bareizza,  Francis  Filelfo,  and  Laurence  Valla,  all  celebrated 
professors  in  different  cities.  In  Latin  poetry,  to  the  cultiva- 
tion of  which  many  were  allured  by  the  growing  taste  for 
ancient  models,  he  will  find  names  which  were  at  the  time 
placed  high  on  the  lists  of  fame,  but  whose  productions  have 
long  ceased  to  be  read.  In  history,  comprising  its  several 
departments,  will  be  found  in  antiquities,  Biondo  Flavio;2  in 

1  See  Vita  Jannotti  Manetti,  by  Naldo  Naldi,  Lis  contemporary  and  fel- 
low-citizen, Rerum  Ital.  Scrip,  xx. 

2  Roma  Instaurata — Italia  Illustrata. 


TO  1450.]  STATE  OF  THE  LATIN  LANGUAGE.  329 

modern  and  particular  story,  Leonardo  Aretino,1  Poggio 
Bracciolini,2  with  the  historiographers  of  the  other  cities; 
and  in  biography  and  other  narrations  a  copious  list.3 

I  pass  over  more  scientific  subjects,  which  were  all  in 
hands  :  on  which,  however,  and  on  those  I  have  men- 
tioned, it  may  be  proper  to  observe  that  Latin  was  the 
language  in  which  they  were  severally  discussed.  Since  the 
attention  of  scholars  had  been  so  strongly  engaged  in  the 
discovery  and  perusal  of  the  classical  remains  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  an  almost  exclusive  preference  was  given  to  the  dead 
languages,  in  which  those  wrote  who  were  ambitious  of 
learned  fame.  They  wrote  in  Latin,  and  translated  into 
Latin  from  the  Greek.  Modern  tongues,  even  the  Italian, 
were  deemed  unworthy  of  attention,  unless  to  beguile  the 
intervals  of  literary  recreation.  There  was  an  evil  in  this 
preference,  but  it  was  one  which  would  be  corrected;  and 
in  the  meantime,  the  preference  served  to  give  that  import- 
ance to  ancient  learning  by  which  alone  a  just  and  accurate 
taste  could  be  formed,  and  by  which  the  vernacular  idioms  of 
Europe  would  be  improved. 

The  Latin  which  these  scholars  wrote,  compared,  not 
with  that  of  Petrarca,  but  with  that  of  the  long  series  of  pre- 
ceding times,  was  greatly  amended.  It  possessed  energy, 
aptitude  of  expression,  and  many  other  resemblances  of  the 
parent  stock,  but  it  wanted  that  elegance  and  purity  of 
diction  which  can  hardly  be  expected  in  imitative  composi- 
tion. Their  historians,  of  whom  I  can  speak  with  most  confi- 
dence,4 not  satisfied,  as  their  predecessors  had  been,  with 
the  statement  of  what  they  had  read  or  heard  with  an  unin- 
quisitive  simplicity,  evinced  a  greater  share  of  critical  ^  dis- 
cernment and  of  patient  investigation.  Their  style,  besides, 
is  often  correct,  and  their  works  exhibit  passages  of  genuine 
eloquence.  The  account  of  the  defence  of  Jerom  of  Prague 
before  the  synod  of  Constance,  and  of  the  manner  of  his 
death,  by  Poggio  Bracciolini,5  who  was  present  at  the  scene, 
has  seldom,  I  think,  been  equalled.  It  forms  the  subject  of 
a  letter  to  Leonardo  Aretino,  when,  speaking  of  the  oratory 
of  Jerom,  he  says:  "  "When  I  consider  what  his  choice  of 

1  De  temporibus  suis — Historia  Florentina,  xii. 

2  Historia  Florentina,  viii.  3  See  Storia  della  Lett.  Ital.  vi. 
1   Si •<•  Kerum  Ital.  Scriptores,  passim. 

i  In  Fascicul.  Ker.  expet.  et  fug.  i.  304. 


330    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1300 

words  was,  what  his  elocution,  what  his  reasoning,  what  his 
countenance,  his  voice,  his  action,  we  must  allow,  however 
much  we  may  admire  the  ancients,  that  in  such  a  cause  no 
one  could  have  approached  nearer  to  the  model  of  their 
eloquence."  I  would  refer  the  reader  to  the  same  Poggio 
when,  having  ascended  the  Capitoline  hill,  reposing  among 
the  ruins  of  temples  and  columns,  he  undertakes  from  that 
commanding  spot  to  describe  the  wide  and  various  prospect 
of  desolation  which  the  fallen  condition  of  Rome  then  ex- 
hibited.1 All,  indeed,  did  not  write  as  Poggio;  but  how  few 
were  the  Ciceros,  the  Virgils,  the  Livies,  in  the  best  ages  of 
Roman  literature. 

It  was  natural  to  have  expected,  from  the  vivid  admira- 
tion which  the  muse  of  Petrarca  had  excited,  and  which 
continued  to  be  felt,  that  the  vernacular  language  of  Italy 
would  henceforth  have  been  exclusively  employed  in  poetical 
composition.  Yet,  speaking  on  this  subject,  the  historian 
says  :2  "  Our  poetry  was  forgotten,  and  relapsed  almost 
into  her  former  rudeness.  Few,  and  generally  of  little  value, 
were  our  versifiers."  Nearly  the  same  may  be  said  of  the 
writers  in  prose.  Boccaccio  as  well  as  Petrarca  might  have 
complained  of  this  neglect;  but  their  enthusiastic  love  of  the 
ancients  must  not  be  forgotten,  with  the  ardour  with  which 
they  laboured  to  recover  their  relics,  and  to  diffuse  a  better 
taste.  In  this  their  example  was  successful,  and  it  sufficed. 
All  which  might  be  expected  could  not  at  once  be  accom- 
plished. More  attention  to  Italian  composition  would  have 
weakened  the  attention  to  works  of  the  ancients,  which,  if 
again  lost  sight  of,  might  never  have  experienced  another 
revival. 

I  should  perhaps  have  noticed  that  the  eagerness  to 
discover  and  the  ardour  to  collect  the  ancient  monuments 
of  art,  kept  pace  with  the  zeal  to  restore  their  literary  re- 
mains. They  must  serve,  it  was  plain,  in  many  cases, 
mutually  to  throw  light  upon  each  other.  Europe,  and  par- 
ticularly its  noblest  portion,  Italy,  was  diligently  surveyed; 
inscriptions,  medals,  statues,  and  other  remains,  were  either 
transported  and  formed  into  collections,  or  designed  and 
copied.  These  afterwards  occupied  the  attention  of  the 

1  Pogg.  de  Variet.  Fortunse ;  or  the  passage  as  beautifully  amended  by  Mr. 
Gibbon,  vi.  619. 

2  Tiraboschi,  vi.  3,  3. 


TO  1450.]  STUDY  OF  ANCIENT  MONUMENTS.  331 

learned  antiquary,  who  subjoined  comments  and  illustrations, 
by  which  the  manners,  the  laws,  the  progress  in  the  arts,  and 
many  events  of  former  times,  were  more  distinctly  brought 
into  view  ;  whilst  the  obscurities  of  the  poets  and  other 
writers  were  clearly  elucidated  by  the  same  means.  In  this 
line  Ciriaco  of  Ancona  was  a  successful  labourer.  With  a 
patience  which  no  toil  could  exhaust,  he  more  than  once 
visited  the  East,  and  left  no  recesses  unexplored  in  Italy  and 
the  adjoining  regions.1  I  mentioned  the  works  of  Biondo 
Flavio  on  the  antiquities  of  Rome  and  Italy;  and  the  same 
subject,  particularly  as  it  regarded  Rome,2  was  pursued  by 
other  scholars.  That  many  errors  and  inadvertencies  should 
occur  in  the  writings  of  these  men  on  subjects  which  had 
been  hitherto  untouched,  cannot  excite  our  surprise;  but  who 
can  refuse  the  tribute  of  applause  to  their  extraordinary 
industry?  Who  does  not  admire  the  diligence  with  which 
they  read  and  extracted  from  the  ancient  authors  whatever 
passages  seemed  to  bear  on  the  points  which  they  were  dis- 
cussing? We  learn  besides  from  them  what  was  the  con- 
dition of  Italy  and  of  Rome  at  the  time  they  wrote. 

It  may  be  asked — Did  this  love  of  ancient  monuments,  as 
connected  with  literature,  and  the  patronage  of  the  great  and 
opulent  by  which  it  was  so  warmly  cherished,  excite  a  cor- 
respondent emulation  in  the  breasts  of  artists?  This  it  cer- 
tainly did;  and  on  this  subject,  comprising  architecture,  sculp- 
ture, and  painting,  may  be  consulted  the  authorities  which  I 
quote  below.3 

Having  conducted  my  reader  through  the  flowery  region 
of  Italy,  and  described  to  him  the  renovated  state  of  letters, 
shall  I  leave  him  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  this  scene,  but  un- 
certain as  to  the  progress  of  other  countries,  in  the  success  of 
which  he  may,  perhaps,  feel  even  a  warmer  interest?  From 
what  has  been  already  so  amply  detailed,  no  such  uncertainty 
can,  I  trust,  remain;  and  besides  the  great  fact  of  Italian 
renovation  being  established,  and  the  obstacles  to  the  further 
diffusion  of  letters  being  by  that  means  in  a  great  degree 
removed,  it  remained  only  patiently  to  wait  the  result,  in  its 
application  to  other  countries,  which  must  soon  become  mani- 

1   Sec  storia  della  Let.  Ital.  vi.  i.  •).  "  vi.  iii.  1. 

3  Scrip.  Her.  Ital.  imssim.  Vasari  vite  de'  Pitt.  Storia  della  Lett.  Ital. 
\-i.  iii.  W. 


332         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.  1300 

fest.  Moreover,  the  revival  of  letters  in  Europe  is  not  what 
I  undertook  to  develop:  as  my  object  was  principally  to  de- 
scribe the  decay  of  literature;  and  to  collect  the  scattered 
incidents  which  finally  led  to  its  resuscitation. 

It  may,  however,  still  be  amusing  briefly  to  consider  what 
was  the  general  aspect  of  Europe,  when  the  first  half  of  the 
fifteenth  century  was  drawing  to  its  close,  which  coincided 
with  the  fall  of  the  Grecian  empire,1  by  which  the  western 
world  was  enriched  with  the  last  remains  of  its  scholars  and 
its  literature.  The  various  modern  tongues  exhibited  some 
specimens  of  improvement,  and  we  read  of  many  authors; 
but  the  political  horizon  was  not  such  as  to  encourage  high 
literary  expectation.  France  had  not  yet  recovered  from  her 
wasteful  contests  with  the  English.  England,  a  prey  to  fac- 
tions, which  the  weak  arm  of  Henry  VI.  was  unable  to  sup- 
press, was  soon  to  be  involved  in  the  deadly  feuds  of  the 
houses  of  York  and  Lancaster — Spain  was  still  divided  by 
several  interests,  and  humbled  by  the  presence  of  the  Moorish 
settlers.  In  Germany,  the  recollection  of  past  sufferings, 
and  the  feeling  of  unredressed  grievances,  kept  alive  a  spirit 
of  animosity  and  discontent.  Yet,  in  the  midst  of  so  many 
inauspicious  circumstances,  the  increased  desire  for  intellec- 
tual improvement  was  visibly  manifesting  its  effects.  Libra- 
ries were  collected,  and  within  this  and  the  last  century  more 
than  thirty  universities  had  been  founded,  with  the  allure- 
ment of  academical  honours  and  rewards. 

The  foundation  of  universities  and  colleges,  if  it  evinced 
in  the  founders  themselves  a  laudable  desire  to  co-operate 
with  the  general  disposition  to  improvement,  did  not,  by 
any  direct  means,  promote  the  cause  of  polite  letters.  Theo- 
logical studies,  and  what  were  deemed  scientific  pursuits,  as 
they  were  traced  out  by  the  Master  of  Sentences,  or  his  ap- 
proved commentators,  almost  exclusively  formed  the  general 
outline  of  education.  In  these  could  be  little  reference  to 
classical  authorities,  of  which  there  was  no  need;  and  few 
were  as  yet  sensible,  that  the  more  the  taste  is  refined, 
and  the  understanding  disengaged  from  sophistical  subtle- 
ties, the  mind  is  more  accessible  to  the  impressions  of  truth, 
and  better  calculated  to  impart  its  own  impressions  to  others. 

The  scholars  of  Germany,  of  France,  of  Spain,  of  Eng- 

1  See  Appendix  I. 


TO  1450.]  UNIVERSITIES.  333 

land,  could  not  be  ignorant  of  the  progress  which  the  Italians 
had  made;  of  the  estimation  in  which  they  held  the  works 
of  the  ancient  writers;  and  of  the  improvements  which  they 
had  effected  in  their  own  language,  and  in  the  general  arts 
of  composition.  I  have  before  noticed  the  intercourse  with 
Rome,  which  still  continued;  and  what  was  a  daily  increas- 
ino-  grievance,  the  embassies  of  legates,  nuncios,  and  Roman 
prelates.  But  still  they  brought  with  them  more  urbanity  of 
manners,  the  endowments  of  a  superior  education,  and  a  taste 
for  letters;  all  which— in  spite  of  the  ill-humour  with  which 
their  progress  was  surveyed,  and  which,  from  multiplied 
causes,  increased  as  their  residences  were  fixed — could  not 
fail  to  produce  good.  In  the  hours  of  private  and  social  in- 
tercourse we  may,  without  dipping  the  pencil  in  the  colours 
of  fiction,  represent  to  ourselves  these  strangers,  conversing 
on  many  literary  subjects  with  the  votaries  of  learning  in  the 
language  of  Terence;  enlivening  their  conversation  by  appo- 
site°quotations  from  Cicero  or  Virgil;  dwelling  on  the  supe- 
rior beauties  of  many  writers  of  Greece;  telling  what  their 
countrymen  had  done;  and  exhibiting  the  copies  which  they 
had  transcribed.  On  such  occasions  Ave  may  readily  believe 
that  the  names  of  Petrarca  and  Boccaccio  would  not  be  for- 
gotten; and  that,  to  enhance  the  acquired  powers  of  their 
own  tongue,  they  would  repeat  and  attempt  to  translate  the 
sonnets  of  one  and  the  tales  of  the  other.  A  wish  of  further 
improvement  would  thus  be  excited  in  many  minds,  and  of 
which  some  success  would  be  the  result. 

As  I  spoke  of  universities,  the  word  seemed  to  suggest  to 
me  that  something  might  with  much  propriety  be  here 
added  on  those  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  I  remarked  that, 
at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Oxford  had  only  three 
colleges,  and  Cambridge  one;  but  in  the  course  of  the  hun- 
dred°and  fifty  years  which  followed,  a  great  accession  took 
place  in  both.  Exeter  College  was  founded  in  1315,  Oriel 
in  1324,  and  Queen's,  which  owes  its  name  to  Queen  Phi- 
linpa,  the  friend  of  Froissard,  and  the  wife  of  Edward  III. 
about  the  year  1340.  We  then  come  to  New  College,  the 
splendid  monument  of  the  munificent  William  of  Wyke- 

ham. 

This  patron  of  letters,  "whose  memory,     says  Camden,1 

1  See  his  Hampshire. 


334    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1300 

"  shall  be  celebrated  through  all  ages,"  was  born  of  low 
parents,  in  the  county  of  Southampton,  about  the  year  1324. 
By  the  generosity  of  a  friend  he  received  his  first  education 
at  Winchester,  whence  proceeding  to  Oxford  he  studied  under 
able  masters.  This  is  not  certain:  he  seems  rather  to  have 
been  indebted  for  the  useful  knowledge  which  he  possessed 
to  his  own  industry,  which  may  be  esteemed  a  better  guide 
than  the  contentious  sophistry  of  the  schools,  with  which 
Oxford  was  then  agitated.  After  some  years  we  find  him 
employed  in  the  office  of  secretary  to  his  first  patron,  the 
constable  of  Winchester  castle,  in  the  discharge  of  which  his 
prudence  and  discretion  were  so  great,  that  before  the  age  of 
twenty-four  years  he  was  called  to  the  service  of  the  king. 
His  employments  in  this  service  were  important  and  various; 
amongst  which  let  me  mention  the  rebuilding  of  Windsor 
Castle,  as  it  now  appears,  the  execution  of  which  was  intrusted 
to  him.  Edward,  whose  eye  was  penetrating,  knew  how  to 
value  the  talents  of  his  servant;  and  this  servant,  says  the 
historian,1  "  grew  much  in  the  king's  favour,  and  quickly 
reaped  those  fruits  which  the  smiles  of  princes  are  wont  to 
afford." 

But  at  this  time  there  was  a  larger  field  for  the  display  of 
talents,  and  in  it  more  ample  means  of  success  than  royal 
bounty  could  alone  bestow.  Wykeham,  it  is  said,  had 
always  designed  to  take  orders :  he  was  admitted  into  the 
church  about  the  year  1361,  and  advanced  from  one  prefer- 
ment to  another.  His  offices  in  the  state  kept  pace  with  his 
ecclesiastical  dignities,  till,  in  1 367,  he  was  raised  to  the  see 
of  Winchester.  In  the  bull  given  on  the  occasion,  the  pope, 
Urban  V.,  then  at  Avignon,  speaks  of  Wykeham  as  "  recom- 
mended to  him  by  the  testimony  of  many  persons  worthy 
of  credit,  for  his  knowledge  of  letters,  his  probity  of  life  and 
manners,  and  his  prudence  and  circumspection  in  affairs  both 
spiritual  and  temporal."  Winchester  was  the  place  which 
Wykeham  loved;  but  the  episcopal  station,  in  the  eye  of  the 
king,  served  principally  to  qualify  him  for  a  higher  office 
about  his  person.  He  made  him  chancellor  or  first  minister; 
but  within  four  years  he  resigned  the  seals,  when  he  could 
devote  himself  with  less  interruption  and  more  assiduity  to 
the  concerns  of  his  diocese,  to  the  reformation  of  irregulari- 

1  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Oxford,  iii.,  edited  by  Gutch. 


TO   1450.]  WILLIAM  OF  WYKEHAM.  335 

ties  and  abuses,  and  to  the  reparation  of  the  episcopal  build- 
ings, which  had  been  suffered  to  fall  into  decay.  At  this 
time  no  less  than  twelve  palaces  of  residence  belonged  to  the 
see  of  Winchester. 

From  contemplating  the  general  state  of  the  country,  in 
its  morals,  its  scanty  means  of  instruction,  and  the  prevailing 
ignorance  in  all  the  ranks  of  society,  Wykeham  seems  to 
have  formed  the  design  of  expending  his  vast  riches,  while  he 
could  himself  direct  their  application,  in  some  institutions 
which  might  prove  most  beneficial,  and  the  least  liable  to 
abuse.  But  while  he  revolved  this  generous  design,  and  was 
preparing  means  for  its  accomplishment,  a  sudden  reverse  of 
fortune  dissipated  all  his  schemes,  and  threatened  him  with 
utter  ruin.  The  transaction  is  involved  in  obscurity.  It 
seems,  however,  that  towards  the  close  of  the  life  of  the  old 
king,  and  when  that  of  the  prince  of  Wales  was  despaired  of, 
his "brother,  the  duke  of  Lancaster,  the  friend  of  Chaucer, 
aspired  to  the  crown.  The  friends  of  the  dying  prince,  among 
whom  was  the  bishop  of  Winchester,  vigorously  withstood 
the  suspected  design;  but  the  prince  died,  leaving  Wykeham 
one  of  the  executors  of  his  will,  and  the  party  of  the  duke 
was  soon  in  a  condition  to  retaliate.  They  exhibited  articles 
of  accusation  against  the  bishop  for  crimes  which  he  was 
alleged  to  have  committed  during  his  administration.  On  one 
charge  only,  which  was  very  trifling  in  its  nature,  judgment 
was  given  by  certain  lords  in  council;  but  on  this  judgment, 
the  temporalities  of  the  see  were  seized  into  the  king's  hands, 
and  the  prelate  forbidden  to  come  within  twenty  miles  of  the 
court.  This  state  of  proscription  was  of  short  duration.  In 
the  space  of  a  few  weeks  he  recovered  his  temporalities,  and 
was  restored  to  the  royal  favour;  and  soon  after  this,  the  king 
dying  in  1377,  on  the  accession  of  Richard  II.  his  pardon 
passed  the  privy  seal,  conceived  "in  the  fullest  and  most 
'•xtcnsive  terms,"  and  he  was  declared  free  from  every  charge. 
The  loss,  however,  sustained  by  the  bishop  in  this  affair  is 
said  to  have  amounted  to  10,000  marks. 

In  the  turbulent  reign  which  now  ensued,  Wykeham,  on 
all  occasions,  conducted  himself  so  as  to  merit  the  good-will 
of  the  prince,  and  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  the  nation. 
But  he  had  leisure  to  recur  to  the  great  plan  which  he  had 
so  long  meditated,  which  was,  to  erect  and  endow  two  colleges, 
the  one  at  Oxford,  the  other  at  Winchester.  The  plan, 


336    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1300 

says  his  biographer,1  boldly  devised,  as  it  were  at  a  single 
thought,  was  noble,  uniform,  and  complete.  "  It  was  no 
less  than  to  provide  for  the  perpetual  maintenance  and  in- 
struction of  two  hundred  scholars,  to  afford  them  a  liberal 
support,  and  to  lead  them  through  an  entire  course  of  educa- 
tion, from  the  first  elements  of  letters  through  the  whole 
circle  of  the  sciences,  from  the  lowest  class  of  grammatical 
learning  to  the  highest  degrees  in  the  several  faculties.  It 
consisted  of  two  parts,  rightly  forming  two  establishments, 
the  one  subordinate  to  the  other.  The  design  of  the  one  was 
to  lay  the  foundation,  that  of  the  other  to  raise  and  complete 
the  superstructure:  the  former  was  to  supply  the  latter  with 
proper  subjects,  and  the  latter  was  to  improve  the  advantages 
received  in  the  former." 

With  a  view  to  this  great  and  original  plan,  he  had  already 
formed  two  infant  societies,  which  were  maintained  at  his 
expense,  and  had  purchased  lands,  when,  in  the  year  1 380, 
having  obtained  the  king's  patent  and  a  bull  from  Rome,  he 
directed  the  first  stone  to  be  laid  of  that  edifice  in  Oxford, 
which  has  acquired  the  name  of  New  College.  It  was  com- 
pleted as  it  now  stands  in  six  years,  when  the  society,  headed 
by  their  warden,  a  kinsman  of  Wykeham,  entered  in  solemn 
procession,  and  received  their  statutes. 

These  statutes,  on  which  great  attention  has  been  bestowed, 
have  been  much  praised.  They  were  the  result  of  patient 
thought  and  long  observation.  As  long  as  Wykeham  lived, 
he  continued  still  more  to  improve  and  perfect  them.-  They 
have  indeed  been  considered  as  the  most  complete  code  in 
their  kind;  and  in  succeeding  times  the  founders  of  other 
colleges  took  them  for  their  model. 

The  sciences  directed  to  be  pursued  were  the  canon  and 
civil  law,  philosophy  and  theology;  while  two  of  the  students 
might  apply  themselves  to  medicine  and  two  to  astronomy. 

The  lands  and  estates  with  which  this  college  was  endowed 
by  the  founder  were  at  the  time  fully  sufficient  for  its  support, 
and  amply  supplied  all  the  purposes  of  the  institution — to 
the  progress  and  success  of  which  he  himself  never  ceased  to 
attend. 

The  year  after  New  College  was  finished,  in  1387,  he  began 
that  of  Winchester,  which  was  also  completed  in  the  same 

1  Life  of  Wykeham,  by  Lowth,  182. 


TO  1450.]  WILLIAM  OF  WYKEHAM.  337 

term  of  six  years.  In  this  house,  designed  as  a  nursery  for 
that  of  Oxford,  and  in  which  therefore  the  elementary  studies 
are  to  be  pursued,  is  contained  likewise  a  similar  society, 
consisting  of  a  warden  and  seventy  scholars.  The  statutes 
are  a  counterpart  of  the  former,  and  he  wisely  provided  for 
their  due  observance  by  making  this  college,  as  well  in 
government  and  discipline  as  in  use  and  design,  subordinate 
to  that  at  Oxford.  I  need  not  add  that  its  endowments  were 
ample. 

Wykeham  long  enjoyed  the  exquisite  pleasure  of  contem- 
plating the  happy  effects  of  his  beneficence  in  the  increasing 
success  and  prosperity  of  these  establishments.  But  his 
beneficence  was  limited  only  by  his  means.  His  last  edifice 
was  not  completed  when  he  undertook  at  his  own  expense  to 
rebuild  a  great  part  of  the  cathedral  church  of  "Winchester, 
which  he  also  lived  to  accomplish  within  the  space  of  about 
ten  years.  Whilst  in  these  works  he  gratified  his  taste  for 
architecture,  and  exercised  all  the  great  and  kindly  energies  of 
his  mind,  we  find  him  busied  in  many  ecclesiastical  concerns, 
in  correcting  abuses  and  conciliating  differences,  and  even 
deeply  employed,  as  his  king  and  country  called  for  his  ser- 
vices, in  the  transactions  of  the  turbulent  reign  of  Richard. 
In  1 389  he  was  again  chancellor,  the  seals  of  which  office  he 
resigned  after  two  years,  when  the  infirmities  of  age  and  the 
distressful  scenes  of  the  revolution  which  soon  ensued,  served 
to  withdraw  him  from  all  further  participation  in  the  affairs  of 
government. 

In  the  repose  of  retirement  Wykeham  attended  to  the 
more  immediate  concerns  of  his  diocese,  and  to  the  final 
disposal  of  the  wealth  which  still  remained  in  his  hands.  We 
are  told  that  it  was  the  uniform  rule  of  his  life,  which  may  be 
idered  as  the  best  test  of  liberality,  never  to  postpone  to 
the  morrow  a  generous  action  which  could  immediately  be 
performed.  He  had  made  his  will,  in  which  the  boundless 
generosity  of  his  former  life  is  fully  displayed;  but  to  enhance 
the  benefit  which  he  intended  to  confer,  he  distributed  his 
legacies  as  occasions  presented  themselves  with  his  own 
hands,  and  b^ame  the  executor  of  his  own  will.  A  codicil 
lettled  any  difficulties  which  might  hence  arise.  Thus  was 
this  -rent  man  occupied,  when  in  the  year  1404,  and  in  the 
eightieth  year  of  his  life,  he  sunk  into  the  grave  after  a  gentle 
and  jrrarlual  decay.  He  was  buried  in  the  cathedral  church 
at  V,  inchester. 


338         LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [A.D.   1300 

When  we  reflect  on  the  vast  sums  which  we  have  seen 
expended  by  Wykeham,  and  peruse  the  contents  of  his  will, 
whilst  we  take  into  the  account  his  many  other  benefactions, 
in  remittances  to  poor  tenants,  reliefs  to  the  indigent  and 
distressed,  repairs  of  roads  and  churches,  purchases  of  estates 
in  addition  to  the  demesne  lands  of  his  see,  and  in  acts  of 
unbounded  hospitality,  we  feel  some  difficulty  in  believing 
that  so  great  a  mass  of  treasure  should  have  been  collected  by 
honourable  means;  but  how  pleasing  is  the  reflection  that 
this  treasure  was  possessed  by  a  man  whose  capacity  of  mind 
was  large  enough  to  dispense  the  whole  in  beneficent  and 
noble  donations  for  the  comfort  of  the  needy,  the  advancement 
of  piety,  and  the  promotion  of  learning — with  the  exception 
of  six  hundred  marks  a-year  in  manors  and  estates  which  he 
bequeathed  to  his  heir,  Sir  Thomas  Wykeham.1 

Lincoln  College  was  founded  in  1427,  and  in  1437  that  of 
All  Souls.  Of  the  founder  of  the  latter,  Henry  Chicheley, 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  I  must  observe  that  having  re- 
ceived his  education  in  the  colleges  of  Wykeham,  and  probably 
under  his  inspection,  he  became  an  illustrious  follower  of  his 
example.  By  Henry  IV.  he  was  employed  in  embassies  and 
other  aifairs  of  high  concernment,  and  in  reward  of  his  services 
was  preferred  to  the  see  of  St.  David's.  Not  less  beloved  and 
not  less  employed  by  Henry  V.,  he  was  raised  in  1414  to 
the  vacant  chair  of  Canterbury.  In  this  high  station,  while 
the  prerogative  of  Rome,  notwithstanding  the  reclamations  of 
Europe,  bore  down  all  opposition,  Chicheley  proved  himself  the 
strenuous  advocate  of  the  laws  and  liberties  of  his  country; 
and  in  the  same  station,  observes  the  historian,2  "waxing 
wondrous  rich,"  he  again  copied  the  brightest  features  in  the 
example  of  his  first  master.  At  Highani-Ferrers,  the  place 
of  his  birth,  he  built  and  founded  a  collegiate  church,  and 
adjoining  to  it  an  hospital;  and  in  1437,  when  sufficient 
purchases  of  land  had  been  made,  he  proceeded  with  great 
solemnity  to  lay  the  first  stone  of  his  college.  It  seems  to 
have  been  completed  with  incredible  rapidity,  and  at  an 
expense  far  above  the  reach  of  modern  affluence.  The 
code  of  statutes  prescribed  by  Chicheley  for  his  society  is 
evidently  modelled  after  those  of  New  College.  He  died 
in  1443.3 

1  Life  of  W.  of  Wykeham,  by  Lowth.     Hist,   and  Antiq.  of  Oxford,  by 
A.  Wood. 

2  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Oxford,  iii.  253.  3  Ibid. 


TO  1450.J  BISHOP  WAYNFLETE.  339 

Another  generous  imitator  of  Wykeham  was  William 
Waynflete,  bishop  also  of  Winchester,  and  founder  of  Mag- 
dalen College  in  Oxford;  but  as  this  foundation  conies  not 
within  the  period  which  I  am  not  willing  to  exceed,  it  shall 
suffice  barely  to  have  noticed  another  instance  of  the  powerful 
influence  created  by  the  example  of  Wykeham.  Waynflete 
had  himself  been  educated  at  Winchester,  and  afterwards,  as 
is  generally  admitted,  in  New  College.1 

Whilst  Oxford  was  thus  signally  enriched,  and  the  founda- 
tion of  her  future  greatness  laid,  the  other  seat  of  the  Muses 
was  not  neglected.  In  1340,  Clare  Hall  was  founded;  Ben- 
net  College  in  1346;  Pembroke  Hall  in  1347;  Caius  College 
in  1348;  about  1353,  Trinity  Hall;  King's  College  in  1441, 
by  Henry  VI.,  and  by  his  wife,  Margaret  of  Anjou,  Queen's 
College,  a  few  years  later. 

Henry  himself  was  much  attached  to  the  college  of  Win- 
chester, which  he  often  visited;2  and  having  personally 
witnessed  the  spirit  of  its  statutes,  and  their  general  effects 
in  the  prosperity  of  the  institution,  he  wisely  directed  them 
to  be  transcribed  with  very  little  change  and  given  to  his  two 
colleges  of  Eton  and  of  that  in  Cambridge. 

If  we  except  these  establishments  of  Cambridge — some  of 
which  owed  much  to  the  beneficence  of  certain  ladies  and 
the  royal  personages  just  mentioned — those  of  Oxford  were 
solely  indebted,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the  ecclesiastical  order; 
a  fact  which  speaks  strongly  in  favour  of  the  celibacy  of 
ecclesiastics,  which  at  that  time  universally  prevailed.  Princes 
and  other  wealthy  persons  might  have  done  what  Wykeham, 
and  Chicheley,  and  Waynflete  did;  but  it  is  not  probable, 
with  so  many  other  calls  on  their  property,  that  they  would 
have  done  it;  nor  if  those  prelates  themselves  had  been 
encumbered  with  families  is  it  probable  that  their  wealth 
would  have  been  turned  into  such  a  full  stream  of  disin- 
terestedness of  benevolence  and  patriotism.  The  cries  of 
nature  and  of  common  justice  would  have  opposed  a  barrier  to 
such  an  application.  But  the  churchmen  of  these  ages,  who 
were  almost  exclusively  possessed  of  mental  cultivation,  were 
called  as  ministers  and  statesmen  to  fill  the  highest  offices  of 
government,  whilst  the  gates  of  church-preferment  stood  open, 
before  them. 

1  Hist,  and  Antiq.  of  Oxford,  iii.  ^5-'i. 

2  Life  of  Wykeham. 

z  2 


340    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1300 

All  the  sources  of  wealth  were  thus  in  their  hands.  If 
wealth  which  was  thus  acquired  was  sometimes  indecorously 
lavished  we  cannot  be  surprised;  but  when  we  behold  such 
beneficence  as  that  which  has  been  lately  mentioned,  and 
directed  to  such  glorious  ends,  he  must  be  a  sordid  judge  who 
does  not  glow  with  admiration  at  the  thought.  Nepotism, 
which  is  in  itself  a  natural  propensity,  has  with  reason  been 
charged  on  some  Roman  bishops  and  other  prelates;  but  in 
Wykeham  and  his  followers  the  ruling  bias  was  patriotism. 
Still  we  presume  to  say  that  ignorance  clouded  their  under- 
standings, that  their  hearts  were  narrowed  by  superstition, 
and  that,  strangers  to  the  pages  of  classical  antiquity,  their 
manners  were  unpolished  and  their  conversation  unrefined. 
In  the  two  last  members  of  the  charge  may  be  some  truth — 
in  the  two  former  none;  and  under  this  impression  I  am 
almost  ready  to  retract  some  assertions  which  I  have  made, 
and  repeating  the  names  of  "Wykeham  and  Chicheley,  I  am 
well  disposed,  independently  of  the  luminous  state  of  Italy,  to 
part  in  good  humour  from  the  age. 

We  will  now  return,  for  the  last  time,  to  Italy.  I  de- 
scribed what  was  the  progress  which  learning  had  made, 
when  no  more  than  half  of  the  century  had  elapsed.  My 
view  extends  no  further;  for  at  this  point  its  complete  revival 
may  be  fixed.  We  have  beheld  the  encouraging  patronage 
of  princes;  seminaries  and  schools  opened;  learned  professors 
appointed;  the  Greeks  co-operating  in  the  same  work;  books 
in  both  languages  ardently  sought  for,  transcribed,  and  mul- 
tiplied; libraries  richly  stored,  and  free  to  public  perusal; 
the  language  of  Greece  studied,  and  its  elegant  productions 
translated  into  Latin;  in  one  word,  a  general  enthusiasm 
excited,  and  the  scholars  of  the  age,  with  a  noble  emulation, 
contending  in  their  various  pursuits  for  the  palm  of  clas- 
sical excellence.  Former  obstacles — though,  in  some  degree, 
surmounted,  as  they  applied  to  Italy — still  remained  un- 
altered, opposing  an  iron  barrier  to  the  general  diffusion 
of  knowledge.  I  mean  the  obstacles  arising  from  the  real 
paucity  of  books — occasioned  by  the  delay,  labour,  and  ac- 
cumulated difficulties  of  multiplying  copies  by  transcription. 

Yet  it  may  be  asked,  how  it  was  in  Greece  and  in  Rome, 
in  the  brightest  eras  of  their  literature,  when  they  possessed 
no  better  means  of  communicating  knowledge?  Their  means 
of  communicating  knowledge  by  books  must  certainly  have 


TO   1450.]  THE  ART  OP  PRINTING  DISCOVERED.  341 

been  scanty;  and  the  number  of  their  books  must  have  been 
comparatively  small.  I  have  therefore  no  hesitation  in 
saying,  that  learning,  by  whatever  means  it  acquired  its 
transcendent  excellence,  was  in  the  hands  of  few.  The  scho- 
lar well  knows  the  narrow  limits  of  Greece,  considered  in  its 
greatest  geographical  dimensions;  and  Attica  alone  was  pecu- 
liarly famed  as  the  seat  of  letters.  Rome  also,  the  capital  of 
the  world,  was  the  capital  of  learning;  and  it  would  be  vain 
to  look  for  historians,  poets,  or  philosophers,  without  the  pre- 
cincts of  her  walls.  And  these  walls  became  the  general 
resort  of  the  talents  which  sprung  up  in  the  provinces. 

But  yet  the  Roman  and  Grecian  people,  at  the  time  to 
which  I  allude,  were  themselves  highly  cultivated,  and  com- 
pared with  other  nations,  singularly  enlightened.  Their 
cultivation  was  not  derived  from  books,  nor  were  they  en- 
lightened by  reading;  but  when  once  a  certain  degree  of 
taste  had  been  generally  diffused,  they  listened  to  their  ora- 
tors and  rhetoricians;  committed  to  memory  the  speeches  of 
their  generals,  and  the  admired  compositions  of  their  poets; 
and  thus  seizing  the  incidental  opportunities  of  instruction, 
they  kept  alive  and  exercised  what  might  then  be  deemed  a 
national  disposition  to  intellectual  improvement.  Such  a  dis- 
position might,  I  think,  have  been  generated  amongst  the 
people  of  Italy,  by  the  ordinary  means,  which  had  now  begun 
to  operate;  whilst  a  select  number  of  men,  such  as  Dante, 
Petrarca,  and  Boccaccio,  and  some  of  their  followers,  would 
have  advanced  to  greater  heights,  and  perhaps  have  left  little 
unaccomplished.  This  might  have  happened;  but  what  I 
wish  to  assert  is,  that  on  a  large  scale,  which  should  com- 
prise the  other  kingdoms  of  Europe,  there  could  have  been 
no  security  for  any  permanent  success,  if  for  any  success  at 
all,  had  the  difficulties  arising  from  the  necessity  of  multi- 
plying books  by  transcription  continued  to  oppose  the  same 
obstacles  to  intellectual  improvement. 

This  consideration  greatly  enhances  the  value  of  that  dis- 
covery, which,  at  this  critical  moment,  broke  on  Europe.  It 
was  the  discovery  of  the  ART  OF  PRINTING. 

The  honour  of  the  invention  has  been  ascribed  to  different 
persons,  and  claimed  by  different  cities:  but  to  whomever  the 
glory  belongs,  to  Coster  at  Harlem,  to  Guttemberg  at  Mentz, 
or  to  Shoefler  at  Strasburg,  it  is  acknowledged  that  the  in- 
vention, rude  in  its  origin,  proceeded  from  letters  engraven 


342    LITERARY  HISTORY  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.   [A.D.  1300. 

on  blocks  of  wood,  to  moveable  types  of  the  same  substance, 
and  from  these  to  metallic  types  cast  in  a  mould. 

No  period  could  have  been  so  opportune  for  this  great  dis- 
covery as  the  present.  Had  it  happened  at  a  time  when 
books  were  little  thought  of,  and  he  who  could  barely  read 
was  deemed  a  scholar,  it  would  probably  have  been  neg- 
lected, and  possibly  irrecoverably  lost ;  though  I  admit 
that,  in  such  circumstances,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  discovery 
would  have  been  made.  It  was  the  general  ardour  for  lite- 
rary improvement,  and  the  daily  experience  of  difficulties  in 
the  prosecution,  which  stimulated  the  force  of  ingenuity,  and 
opened  the  way  to  success.  Invention  is  truly  called  the 
child  of  necessity;  and  we  may  be  surprised  that  a  discovery, 
which  is  so  obviously  simple,  was  not  sooner  made  by  those 
who  most  sensibly  felt  the  impediments  by  which  their  pro- 
gress was  prevented  or  delayed. 

The  advantages  arising  from  the  art  of  printing  are  too 
palpable  to  require  a  particular  enumeration.  The  easy  mul- 
tiplication of  copies;  their  increased  cheapness,  and  their 
superior  correctness,  were  its  principal  recommendations. 
The  art  might  occasion  some  incidental  evils,  to  which  every 
thing  human  is  liable;  but  they  are  comparatively  of  no  im- 
portance. 

We  have  traced  many  of  the  causes  to  which  the  revival  of 
letters  was  owing;  the  press  will  now  accelerate  their  progress, 
and  extend  their  circulation  beyond  the  most  sanguine  antici- 
pation of  former  times.  Italy,  it  is  admitted,  had  no  concern 
in  the  first  invention  of  the  typographical  art,  the  date  of 
which  is  not  carried  beyond  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury; but,  before  its  close,  few  Italian  towns  were  unprovided 
with  a  press;  and  the  name  of  Aldo  became  early  celebrated 
for  the  beauty  of  his  letter  and  the  correctness  of  his  copies, 
in  the  great  collection  which  he  made  of  the  classics  of  Greece 
and  Rome.1 

1  Storia  della  Lett.  Ital.  vi.  i.  4.  On  the  Art  of  Printing,  see  Meerman, 
Origines  Typographies. 


CONCLUSION. 


IN  advancing  through  this  long  series  of  time  it  would  have 
been  easy,  as  the  documents  lay  before  me,  to  have  accumu- 
lated extracts,  and  thus  to  have  formed  a  more  ponderous 
volume;  but  should  I  by  this  means  have  conveyed  more 
valuable  information?  I  omitted  nothing  which  I  thought 
that  a  reasonable  curiosity  would  wish  to  know.  To  com- 
press where  matter  is  abundant,  and  yet  still  to  leave  the 
subject  sufficiently  full,  and  to  be  instructive,  is  the  duty  of 
a  compiler,  and  one  of  the  necessary  arts  of  compilation. 
How  far  I  have  succeeded  in  this  point  I  must  leave  it  to 
others  to  determine. 

I  think  that  I  shall  not  be  accused  of  an  undue  partiality 
to  Italy  for  the  constant  attention  which  I  have  given  to  all 
the  periods  of  its  literary  history.    My  motives  were  obvious, 
and  I  trust  that  the  reader  will  consider  them  satisfactory. 
I  was  aware  the  first  rays  of  intellectual  light  would  issue 
from  Italy,   and  therefore  it  became  my  duty  carefully  to 
watch  and  to  report  the  progress  of  incidents  and  circum- 
stances which  tended  to  accelerate   the  happy  period.     In 
this  view,  the  state  of  other  countries  was   comparatively 
uninteresting ;  and  as  they  continued  to  exhibit  during  many 
ages  a  gloomy  uniformity  of  ignorance — broken  only,  but 
not  really  enlightened  nor  improved,  by  occasional  corusca- 
tions of  intellect — to  have  dwelt  with  much  minuteness  on 
each  would  have  been  without  any  profit  to  the  reader,  and 
productive  only  of  weariness  to  the  writer.     In  every  period 
since  the  declension  of  literature,  the  description  of  it  in  one 
country  lias,  with   the   exception   of  a  few  circumstances, 
adequately  represented  the  state  of  all.     In  these  times,  the 
appearance  of  a  man  of  superior  attainments   served  only, 
like  those  verdant  spots  which  are  called  oases  in  the  deserts 
of  Africa,  to  break  the  dreary  continuity  of  barrenness. 
Should  it  still  be  thought  that,  without  any  injury  to  my 


344  CONCLUSION. 

plan,  I  might  have  extended  my  view  of  other  countries,  I 
can  add  only  that,  if  I  had  done  it,  a  wider  region  of  sterility 
would  have  been  expanded  before  the  reader's  eye.  Here  it 
was  not  my  wish  to  detain  him.  In  the  characters  of  the 
rulers,  I  noted  what  seemed  most  promising;  and  in  the 
various  changes  in  the  constitutions  of  states  and  the  forms 
of  society,  I  did  not  omit  anything  which  appeared  to  me  to 
have  a  direct  influence  on  letters,  or  to  be  connected  with 
them.  But  much  has  doubtless  escaped  me.  I  was,  how- 
ever, not  seldom  apprehensive — my  mind  being  full  of  the 
subject — that  I  might  dwell  on  points  which  were  more 
interesting  to  myself  than  to  the  reader.  The  prolixity  of 
authors  is  generally  ascribable  to  this  cause.  It  is  more 
advisable  to  say  too  littl  ethan  too  much ;  hence,  if  we  some- 
times fail  of  gratifying  curiosity,  we  may  at  least  avoid  the 
production  of  disgust. 

In  treating  this  subject,  learned  foreigners  have  bestowed 
more  minute  attention  in  investigating  particular  topics, 
which  I  have  only  slightly  and  incidentally  mentioned.  They 
speak  in  their  several  periods  of  time  of  the  state  of  mathe- 
matical studies,  of  natural  and  experimental  philosophy,  of 
statistics,  of  jurisprudence,  and  of  medicine.  These  may 
be  severally  interesting,  but  they  seemed  not  much  con- 
nected with  my  view  of  the  subject.  Literature  presented 
the  same  aspect,  being  influenced  in  its  decline  by  the  same 
causes,  whether  medicine  was  well  or  ill  understood,  laws 
amended  or  utterly  changed,  or  some  elements  of  practical 
philosophy  prosecuted  with  success.  Yet  I  am  fully  con- 
vinced that  whatever  tended  to  exercise  and  to  invigorate 
the  reasoning  powers,  or  to  alleviate  the  condition  of  man, 
tended  at  the  same  time,  by  a  positive  impulse,  to  accelerate 
his  progress  towards  improvement.  Hence  I  have  been  in- 
duced to  dwell  on  some  points  of  discussion,  and  some  his- 
torical incidents  which  might  otherwise  without  any  detriment 
have  been  omitted,  as  the  subjects  above-mentioned  have 
generally  been.  But  the  reader  has  lost  little  by  the  omis- 
sion, as  he  would  readily  understand  that  when  the  condition 
of  the  more  easy  and  favourite  pursuits  was  so  debased, 
more  abstruse  and  recondite  exertions  in  geometry  and 
jurisprudence  could  not  be  elevated  to  a  high  pitch  of 
eminence. 

I  have,  however,  when  it  was  too  late,  sometimes  blamed 


CONCLUSION.  345 

myself  for  not  having  entered  into  the  subject  of  geography, 
which  is  so  intimately  connected  with  that  of  history.  By 
way  of  supplement,  I  will  now  therefore  add,  that  among  the 
growing  energies  of  mind  which  have  been  remarked,  that 
by  which  at  this  time  nautical  skill  was  improved,  and  the 
boundaries  of  geographical  science  enlarged,  was  not  the 
least  conspicuous.  The  crusaders  saw  much  of  Europe,  and 
some  regions  of  the  East,  and  at  other  times  travellers, 
actuated  by  various  motives,  had  returned  with  no  small 
stock  of  information,  however  mixed  with  fables,  respecting 
countries  even  more  remote.  With  some  the  ruling  motive 
was  to  spread  Christian  truth,  whilst  others  were  influenced 
by  commercial  speculations.  But  since  the  fall  of  the  Roman 
empire  to  the  present  era,  it  seems  agreed  that  navigation 
had  made  little  progress,  though  the  wonderful  property  of 
the  magnet  was  known,  and  the  mariner's  compass  had  been 
constructed  a  hundred  years  before.  The  Spaniards,  turning 
their  backs  on  the  land,  first  ventured  to  commit  themselves 
to  unknown  seas;  and  the  fifteenth  century  had  hardly 
opened,  when  the  Portuguese  commenced  those  discoveries  on 
the  western  coast  of  Africa,  which  gradually  led  them  to  its 
most  southern  cape,  whilst  the  great  Columbus  meditated 
and  matured  the  plan  which  was  to  astonish  Europe  by  the 
prospect  of  a  new  world.  Prince  Henry  of  Portugal  was 
the  soul  of  these  first  undertakings,  his  superior  knowledge 
directed  all  the  views  of  the  discoverers,  who  were  encouraged 
and  protected  by  his  patriotism.1 

From  the  spirit  of  enterprise  thus  strongly  manifested,  it 
may  justly  be  inferred  that,  if  the  natives  of  Spain  and 
Portugal  had  in  literary  pursuits  been  left  behind  by  the 
more  fortunate  citizens  of  some  other  countries,  they  were 
possessed  of  capacities  not  inferior  to  any ;  though  the 
direction  of  them  was  not  the  same.  But  it  seems  that  they 
also  had  read  at  least  the  works  of  the  ancient  geographers, 
and  impressed  their  minds  with  the  conjectural  speculations 
of  their  philosophers: — for  when  the  Portuguese  navigators 
had  advanced  to  the  limits  of  the  torrid  zone,  they  were 
for  some  time  deterred  from  proceeding,  by  the  notion  which 
prevaile'd  among  the  ancients,  as  recorded  by  Cicero2 — that 

1   See  his  Robertson's  History  of  America,  i.  1. 
4  See  Somiiium  Scipiouis. 


346  CONCLUSION. 

the  excessive  heat  which  reigned  perpetually  in  that  region 
of  the  globe  was  so  fatal  to  life  as  to  render  it  uninhabitable. 
Their  activity  had  been  likewise  kept  alive  by  the  peculiar 
circumstances  of  the  country.  Hostile  as  they  were  to  the 
Moorish  settlers,  from  the  strongest  motives  of  religion  and  of 
policy,  I  know  not  that  they  could  have  been  induced  to 
draw  from  them  those  aids  in  letters  which  they  were  so 
able  to  communicate,  and  which  strangers  from  other 
countries  sometimes  so  freely  borrowed:  but  a  martial  and 
adventurous  spirit,  which  was  at  this  time  augmented  by  a 
series  of  successes,  while  it  gave  energy  to  the  character, 
visibly  raised  the  possessors  of  it  to  a  higher  scale  in  the 
rank  of  human  beings,  and  rendered  them  capable  of  wonder- 
ful achievements. 

In  Germany,  another  spirit  brooded  in  the  public  mind, 
indicating  discontent,  impatience  of  grievances,  and  an  anxious 
but  undefined  wish  of  change.  Their  complaints  had  often 
been  heard,  but  no  redress  had  been  obtained.  With  the 
rest  of  Europe,  they  complained  that  the  power  exercised  by 
the  Roman  bishops  was  exorbitant  and  oppressive;  that  their 
legates  and  other  agents  were  rapacious  and  arrogant;  that 
the  manners  of  the  higher  and  lower  clergy  and  of  the  monks 
were  disorderly  and  dissolute;  and  they  loudly  demanded,  as 
their  fathers  had  done,  a  reformation  of  the  church  in  its  head 
and  in  its  members.  It  would  have  been  well  had  these 
complaints  been  patiently  heard  and  wisely  redressed.  This 
unfortunately  was  not  the  case;  and  not  many  years  later, 
that  revolution  followed,  which,  in  the  Christian  world,  pro- 
duced a  series  of  events  which  were  to  many  the  source  of 
manifold  evils,  and  to  some  of  partial  good.  The  cause  of 
literature  was  eventually  benefited.  But  could  it  have  been 
thus  benefited  by  this  alone?  Or  was  the  character  of  the 
northern  nations  really  become  so  torpid  that  nothing  short  of 
a  general  combustion,  blown  up  by  the  breath  of  a  Saxon 
friar,  could  have  roused  their  minds  into  action? 

I  believe  that  the  effect  might  not  have  been  so  rapid; 
but  when. I  look  to  the  state  of  Italy,  as  it  then  was,  and  to 
the  state  of  France,  as  it  soon  would  be — I  can  say  with 
confidence,  that  genuine  literature  and  the  polite  arts  must 
shortly  have  revisited  all  the  European  kingdoms,  even  though 
no  such  revolution  as  has  been  called  the  Reformation  had 
intervened  to  inflame  and  convulse  the  moral  state  of  Chris- 


CONCLUSION. 


347 


tendom.  In  that  case,  it  is  pleasing  to  recollect  that — without 
civil  or  religious  strife,  and  without  those  seeds  of  animosity 
being  engendered  which  no  time  is  likely  to  eradicate— we 
should  have  seen  abuses  corrected;  ignorance  dispelled;  rights 
maintained;  learning  restored;  the  arts  keeping  possession  of 
our  temples;  and,  in  our  own  country,  those  noble  edifices, 
the  monuments  of  the  generous  piety  of  our  ancestors,  pre- 
served from  destruction,  and  made  the  asylums,  not  of 
monkish  indolence,  but  of  studious  ease,  modest  worth,  and 
Christian  philosophy. 


APPENDIX. 
I. 

ON  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS,  FROM  THE  SIXTH  CENTURY 
TO  THE  FALL  OF  THE  EASTERN  EMPIRE,  IN  1453. 


Sixth  century:  the  reign  of  Justinian — The  effects  of  theological  contro- 
versies— Tribonian  and  Procopius,  &c. — The  learning  of  Justinian — His 
taste  for  huilding — Saint  Sophia — The  seventh  century — State  of  things 
under  Heraclius — A  new  controversy — Few  writers  of  any  note — Eighth 
century — Iconoclasm — Low  state  of  learning — St.  John  Damascene — 
The  ninth  century  more  auspicious  to  learning — The  patriarch  IS'ice- 
phorus — Attempts  of  Michael  the  Stammerer — Barclas  favours  the  cause 
of  letters — Photius — His  principal  works — The  emperors  Basil  and 
Leo — Tenth  century  :  Constantino  Porphyrogenitus — Simeon  Meta- 
phrastes — Suidas — The  embassy  of  Liutprand — Eleventh  century :  state 
of  the  empire — Michael  Psellus — Alexius  Comnenus — The  first  crusade — 
Twelfth  century:  John  Comnenus — John  Zonaras — Nicephorus  Bryen- 
nitis — Anna  Comneua — Manuel  Comnenus — Second  crusade — Manuel 
fond  of  controversy — Eustathius,  the  commentator  of  Homer — Athenaeus 
— John  Tzetzes — The  closing  events  of  the  century — Thirteenth  cen- 
tury— Constantinople  taken  by  the  Latins — Monuments  of  art  de- 
stroyed— The  effects  of  the  capture  on  learning — Good  conduct  of  the 
expelled  princes — Nicetas  and  other  writers — State  of  the  Greek  em- 
pire after  its  restoration — Fourteenth  century — Literary  character  of 
Andronicus — Theodoras  Metochita — John  Cantacuteuus — Nicephorus 
Gregorus — A  curious  controversy — Progress  of  the  Turks — Greek  an- 
thologies— Fifteenth  century — The  question  of  union  between  the 
churches — Council  of  Ferrara  and  Florence — The  Greeks  return  from 
Florence — Fall  of  the  eastern  empire — Its  three  last  historians — State 
of  the  Greek  language. 

WHILST  learning  was  extinguished  in  the  western  regions  of  Europe, 
was  the  Grecian  empire,  as  it  verged  to  its  fall,  immersed  in  the 
same  shade  of  ignorance  and  barbarism  ?  It  appeared  to  me  that  this, 
amongst  others,  was  a  question  which  it  seemed  to  me  that  the 


THE  IMPERIAL  THRONE  TRANSFERRED  TO  BYZANTIUM.   349 

reader  of  these  pages  would  be  naturally  inclined  to  ask.  So  long  as 
the  connexion  was  maintained,  between  Rome  and  the  East,  and  we 
could  read  and  admire  the  literary  productions  of  the  latter,  it  was 
easy,  as  these  commanded  attention,  to  follow  their  progress  in  an 
unbroken  series.  They  even  claimed  a  place,  which,  in  a  well  ar- 
ranged system,  could  not  be  withheld.  But  the  times  soon  altered. 
The  language  of  Greece  ceased  to  be  understood ;  and  its  writers 
could  no  longer,  with  propriety,  be  introduced.  Their  introduction, 
which  I  more  than  once  attempted,  would  have  marred  that  unity  of 
plan  which  I  was  anxious  to  preserve.  But  though  I  have  not  ab- 
ruptly called  the  reader  off  from  the  concerns  of  the  Grecian  schools, 
I  fear  that  he  will  too  often  have  experienced  the  unpleasant  sensa- 
tion of  unprepared  and  sudden  transitions. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  fifth  century — when  the  empire  of  the 
west  had  fallen — we  left  the  Greeks  in  the  possession  of  the  literary 
eminence  which  they  had  so  long  maintained :  their  language  still 
pure ;  taste,  elegance,  and  judgment  discernible  in  the  works  which 
they  composed  ;  and  the  arts,  as  far  as  they  were  encouraged,  power- 
fully aided  by  their  ingenuity.  It  did  not  occur  to  me  at  the 
time  to  remark  it,  as  a  singular  incident,  that,  even  when  the  Latin 
language  was  in  its  highest  cultivation,  no  Greek  seems  to  have 
studied  this  language,  much  less  to  have  attempted  to  write  it. 
They  lived  at  Rome,  they  were  patronised  with  a  lavish  partiality, 
and  often  wrote  on  the  immediate  concerns  of  the  Roman  empire  ; 
but  Greek  was  the  language  which  they  employed.  In  the  mean- 
time the  Latins,  so  long  as  any  taste  remained  amongst  them,  did 
not  cease  to  admire  and  to  cultivate  the  language  of  Greece. 

It  may  be  asked,  what  effect,  or  if  any  effect,  was  produced  on  this 
language,  by  the  translation  of  the  imperial  throne  from  Italy  to 
Byzantium  ?  Constantine  was  followed  by  a  splendid  court,  com- 
posed of  whatever  was  most  conspicuous  in  talents  and  endowments, 
and  taking  with  them  the  learning  and  the  literary  productions  of 
their  fathers.  Some  effect  must  thus  necessarily  have  been  produced  : 
but  as  the  number  of  these  strangers  was  comparatively  small,  and  a 
long  prevailing  fashion  had  taught  them  to  prefer  the  arts  and  the 
letters  of  Greece,  they  would  be  more  anxious  to  copy  what  they  saw 
and  heard,  and  themselves  to  become  Greeks,  than  to  communicate  to 
these,  what  they  less  valued,  the  Latin  language  or  its  best  produc- 
tion?. I  know  not  indeed  if  this  translation  of  empire  did  not  itself 
contribute  to  give  new  strength  and  lustre  to  the  Greek  tongue. 
Placed  between  Europe  and  Asia,  Byzantium  became,  from  this 
period,  the  great  centre  to  which  learned  men,  who  were  before 
:•-<•(!  and  unconnected,  could  resort,  receive  the  rewards  due  to 
their  labours,  and  stimulate  each  other's  activity  by  mutual  collision. 
That  the  Greek  language,  at  least,  was  preferred  even  by  those 
whose  future  prospects  might  have  induced  them  to  give  equal  atten- 
tion to  that  of  Home,  is  evinced  by  the  remarkable  fact — that  it  was 
the  idiom  in  which  the  emperor  Julian,  who  lived  much  in  the  west, 
and  was  governor  of  Gaul,  conversed  and  wrote. 


350         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.     [A.D.  500 

Its  richness  and  its  harmony  had,  doubtless,  peculiar  charms ;  but 
the  great  mine  of  knowledge  was  to  be  found  in  its  writers. 
From  this  mine  we  shall  see,1  that,  during  the  most  resplendent 
period  of  the  Caliphate,  the  disciples  of  Mahomet,  while  they  severed 
member  after  member  from  the  Byzantine  empire,  even  deigned  to 
draw  such  stores  of  science  as  could  best  improve  and  augment 
their  own  stock.  Nor  were  the  Greeks  thrifty  in  their  contribu- 
tions. They  became  their  teachers  ;  and  they  laid  at  their  feet  the 
volumes  of  their  sages,  reviving  the  recollection  of  former  days, 
•when  the  Latin  world  frequented  the  schools  of  Greece,  and  was 
indebted  to  her  for  the  most  valued  treasures  of  refinement,  elegance, 
and  taste.  Whilst  she  thus  profusely  bestowed  her  favours  on  her 
enemies,  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  she  was  negligent  of  her  self- 
cultivation  ;  or  that,  holding  in  her  hands  the  riches  of  her  fathers, 
she  permitted  the  spirit  which  amassed  that  sacred  patrimony,  to 
sink  into  lifeless  apathy. 

During  the  thirty-eight  years  of  the  reign  of  Justinian,2  from~527 
to  565 — a  prince  of  talents,  who,  amongst  the  noblest  objects  of 
ambition,  disdained  not  the  less  illustrious  name  of  poet  and  philo- 
sopher, lawyer  and  theologian,  musician  and  architect — it  might 
have  been  expected  that  literature  and  the  arts  could  have  claimed 
no  patronage  which  would  not  be  liberally  bestowed.  Few  works, 
however,  of  any  eminence  appeared,  if  we  except  the  laborious  com- 
pilations on  jurisprudence,  under  the  titles  of  the  Code,  the  Digest 
or  Pandects,  the  Institutes,  and  Novella,  which  were  partly  extracted 
from  the  writings  of  former  civilians,  and  digested  into  a  complete 
system  of  law,  by  the  great  scholar  and  statesman  Tribonian,  with 
the  assistance  of  other  eminent  men.  Justinian  espoused  their 
labours  as  connected  with  his  own  glory :  while  in  other  respects  he 
has  been  represented  as  an  enemy  to  philosophy  ;3  when,  by.an  edict, 
he  imposed  a  perpetual  silence  '  on  the  schools  of  Athens,  under  the 
idea,  that  heathenism  was  still  inculcated  in  the  lectures  of  its  pro- 
fessors ;  and  when,  from  rapacity,  or  rather  it  may  be  said,  from  the 
real  want  of  money  to  complete  the  expensive  edifices  in  which  he 
was  engaged,  he  listened  to  the  pitiful  suggestions  of  mercenary 
counsellors,  and  confiscated  the  stipends,  which,  in  many  cities,  had 
been  appropriated  from  a  remote  period  to  the  use  of  the  masters  of 
the  liberal  arts.  Rusticity,  says  the  writer 4  from  whom  I  take  the 
fact,  now  invaded  the  former  seats  of  learning,  as,  when  the  schools 
of  Athens  were  closed,  the  grief  and  indignation  of  the  votaries  of 
science  were  loudly  heard,  and  its  professors  emigrated  to  Persia.  ' 

But  if  letters  ceased  at  this  time  to  be  cultivated  with  less  ardour, 

1  Append.  II. 

2  See  Lebeau's  Histoire  du  Bos  Empire,  viii. 

3  See  Brucker,  Hist.  Crit.  Philos.  iii.  533.  Edit.  Lipsiae  an.  1743. 

4  Zonaras  Annal.  in  Justin.,  but  he  lived  as  late  as  the  twelfth  century. 
See  Bib.  G.  v.  42.  x. 


TO  1453.]  THEOLOGICAL  CONTROVERSY.  351 

a  more  substantial  reason  may  be  assigned  for  the  event,  than  the 
discouraging  edict  or  the  rapacity  of  Justinian.  Let  the  religious 
controversies,  the  violence  with  which  they  were  conducted,  the 
characters  of  those  controversies,  and  the  numbers  of  all  ranks  and 
professions  who  eagerly  engaged  in  them,  be  considered,  from  the 
emperor  to  the  lowest  mechanic  in  the  streets  of  Constantinople,  and 
it  will  be  seen,  that  from  the  contagious  nature  of  popular  discus- 
sions few  minds  could  keep  themselves  free  from  party  influence; 
that  the  greatest  talents  had  a  new  field  opened  before  them,  on 
which  fame  might  be  obtained,  and  many  passions  be  gratified.  The 
pages  of  their  admired  poets,  their  orators,  or  their  historians,  might 
continue  occasionally  to  engage  a  vacant  hour  ;  but  more  powerful 
motives  would  incessantly  recal  their  attention  to  the  subjects  of 
controversy.  These  may,  to  us,  seem  void  of  all  interest :  whether, 
for  example,  the  great  Origen,  long  before  dead,  and  his  doctrines, 
should  be  condemned  ;  whether  the  three  chapters,  as  they  were 
denominated,  that  is,  the  writings  of  three  Oriental  bishops,  them- 
selves also  long  at  rest  in  the  grave,  merited  anathematization  ;  and 
whether  it  could  be  properly  said,  that  one  of  the  Trinity  suffered 
on  the  cross  ? 

The  royal  theologian  entered  into  these  disputes;  their  character 
was  congenial  with  his  temper  and  understanding ;  and  what  spec- 
tator could  be  indifferent  when  Justinian  solicited  the  sanction  of 
his  voice  '?  While  the  barbarians  invaded  his  provinces,  or  while 
his  victorious  legions  marched  under  the  banners  of  Belisarius  and 
Narses — this  successor  of  Caesar  sat  in  council,  in  order  to  define  the 
evanescent  shades  of  some  metaphysical  distinction.  If  flatterers  ap- 
plauded his  sagacity,  or  if,  as  the  annals  of  the  times  attest,  the  public 
mind  was  induced  by  his  example  to  cherish  no  pursuits  but  those 
of  theology,  there  were  men  who,  when  other  calls  predominated, 
could  deride  the  occupations  of  the  imperial  wrangler.  He  "  truly 
must  be  a  coward,"  observed  a  conspirator  to  his  associate,  "  who  can 
fear  to  draw  his  sword  against  Justinian,  while,  without  any  guard, 
he  sits  whole  nights  in  his  closet,  debating  with  reverend  grey-beards, 
and  turning  over  the  pages  of  ecclesiastical  volumes."  '  Even  his 
empress,  the  sensual  Theodora,  who  differed  from  her  royal  consort 
on  the  monophysite  question,  could  not  escape  the  general  contagion  ; 
and  not  merely  the  capital  and  the  provinces,  but  the  palace  and  the 
nuptial  bed,  were  convulsed  by  spiritual  discord. 

This  polemical  fervor  was  principally  kindled  by  the  Arian  con- 
troversy, in  the  fourth  century,  and  we  may  follow  it,  as  it  was  up- 
held through  the  succeeding  era,  when  the  followers  of  Nestorius 
and  Eutycims  disturbed  or  divided  the  faith  of  the  eastern  world. 
The  genius  of  that  people,  as  it  was  irritable  and  litigious,  was  keen, 
penetrating,  and  subtle.  Hence  no  question  could  be  exhausted  ; 
new  matter  would  daily  arise  ;  and  the  same  source  was  seen  to 

1  Procop.  dc  Bell.  Goth.  iii.  32.     1  shall  speak  of  him  hereafter. 


352         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.     [A.D.  500 

branch  into  a  hundred  streams.  The  ramifications  of  the  leading 
heresies  of  Nestorius  and  Eutychus  alone,  could  not  readily  be  num- 
bered. The  emperors,  who  became  parties  in  every  dispute,  in  vain 
issued  edicts  ;  and  councils,  with  no  better  success,  promulgated 
their  decrees.  They  served  to  impart  importance  to  opinions,  which 
ridicule  or  contempt  might  perhaps  have  silenced.  They  united 
the  combatants  in  firmer  array  ;  and  by  exercising  pity  or  popularity, 
they  sometimes  multiplied  the'  means  of  annoyance  and  defence : 
whilst  every  man  of  talents,  who  was  enlisted  in  the  ranks  of  con- 
troversy, might  be  deemed  a  loss  to  the  cause  of  literature. 

During  the  reign  of  Justinian,  various  sects  still  subsisted  which 
had  fomented  divisions  in  the  Christian  church,  though  often  perse- 
cuted and  afflicted.  In  Persia,  and  in  some  provinces  of  the  empire, 
the  Manicheans  maintained 'and  disseminated  their  dangerous  opi- 
nions. While  the  Vandals  held  Africa,  the  Donatists  enjoyed  freedom 
and  tranquillity.  Under  the  various  princes  of  the  Gothic  line,  the 
Arians  might  be  said  to  triumph.  In  Persia,  in  India,  Armenia, 
Arabia,  S3rria,  and  other  countries  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Roman 
empire — for  so  the  Greeks  affected  to  style  their  falling  state — the 
Nestorians,  with  a  patriarch  at  their  head,  continued  to  propagate 
their  tenets,  and  to  multiply  their  churches.  Sometimes,  indeed, 
they  were  treated  with  severity,  but  they  were  more  frequently  in- 
dulged by  their  respective  sovereigns  as  men  whom  oppression  had 
rendered  cordially  adverse  to  their  former  masters. 

The  Eutychians,  or  Monophysites,  though  long  distracted  by  in- 
testine feuds,  possessed  an  extensive  sway,  and  were  patronised  even 
in  the  court  of  Byzantium,  as  was  seen  in  the  opening  of  the  sixth 
century,  by  the  emperor  Anastasius  ;  and  afterward,  as  I  remarked, 
by  Theodora ;  whilst  in  many  of  the  remoter  provinces,  and  in  many 
kingdoms,  they  soon  enjoyed  all  the  influence  of  an  established 
church.1 

Into  whatever  regions  the  ministers  of  these  various  sects  travelled, 
or  wherever  they  sojourned,  the  Greek  language  was  the  vehicle  of 
their  opinions  or  their  eloquence ;  and  had  their  minds  been  as  en- 
lightened as  their  zeal  was  ardent,  while  they  charmed  their  hearers 
writh  the  euphonies  of  that  tongue,  they  would  have  allured  them  to 
its  acquirement,  or  would  at  least  have  diffused  among  them,  by 
translations,  those  stores  of  taste  and  erudition  with  which  it  was 
enriched,  but  their  zeal  was  actuated  by  less  worthy  views  of  in- 
terest or  ambition  ;  or,  perhaps,  to  speak  more  candidly,  of  making 
proselytes  to  their  faith,  and  thus  of  giving  ^o  it  more  extension  and 
permanence.  It  seldom  has,  I  believe,  happened,  that  men,  pos- 
sessed by  a  sectarian  spirit — however  refined  the  taste  which  early 
education  had  infused  into  their  minds — either  retained  it  during- 
the  operation  of  that  spirit,  or  felt  a  wish  to  communicate  any  por- 
tion of  it  to  their  followers.  A  mind  polished  by  literature,  or  ex- 

1  See  on  these  subjects  Moslieim,  ii.,  or  any  other  ecclesiastical  v/riter. 


TO  1453.]  TRIBONIAN.  353 

panded  by  liberal  sentiment,  is  ill-qualified  to  listen  to  coarse  decla- 
mation, or  to  embrace  a  contracted  and  uncharitable  creed. 

When,  by  the  edict  of  Justinian,  and  other  oppressive  acts,  the 
beautiful  reveries  of  Plato — to  which  great  additions  had  been  made 
by  his  modern  followers,  particularly  in  the  schools  of  Alexandria — 
could  no  longer  be  publicly  taught,  they  are  said  to  have  found  an 
asylum1  in  the  cells  of  the  Asiatic  monks.  These  monks  were 
warmly  attached  to  the  memory  of  Origen,  who  was  himself  a  Pla- 
tonist,  and  manifested  their  ardour  in  his  cause.  But  the  use  which 
they  made  of  his  lights,  of  those  of  the  Grecian  sage,  or  of  his  new 
disciples,  was  not  to  open  their  minds  to  the  pure  influence  of  a  sub- 
lime theory,  and  to  enlarge  the  boundaries  of  science,  but  to  perplex 
the  simple  truths  of  Christianity,  to  multiply  recondite  and  allego- 
rical interpretations,  to  affect  a  superiority  to  the  inherent  infirmi- 
ties of  human  nature,  and  to  establish  a  system  of  extravagant 
mysticism. 

It  seems  that  we  should  look,  at  this  time,  for  the  real  state  of 
Grecian  learning,  not  in  those  academic  retreats  where  it  had  for- 
merly been  cultivated,  but  in  the  schools  of  theology,  in  the  debates 
of  councils,  and  in  the  works  of  those  men  whose  talents  were  exer- 
cised in  the  controversies  of  the  age.  Some  years  ago,  when  in  quest 
of  other  objects,  I  turned  over  and  sometimes  attentively  perused 
many  volumes,  in  which  the  subjects  to  which  I  allude  were  dis- 
cussed. If  I  was  compelled  to  admire  the  ease  with  which  the 
fecundity  of  the  Greek  tongue  could  accommodate  its  silver  tones 
and  elegant  phrases  to  the  expression  of  ideas,  often  new,  and  often 
barbarous  —  it  was  still  evident,  that  those  who  came  forward  as 
champions,  while  their  attention  was  engaged  in  these  popular  ques- 
tions, had  neglected  to  derive  taste  from  the  genuine  sources  where 
alone  it  could  be  found.  That  they  were  superior  to  the  Latins  in 
many  respects  could  not  be  denied  ;  and  this  superiority  was  in  & 
great  degree  due  to  the  language  in  which  they  spoke  or  wrote  ;  and 
which,  from  the  fortunate  circumstance  of  having  been  kept  free 
from  a  vitiating  commixture,  had  still  retained  its  primitive  cha- 
racter. 

I  mentioned  the  great  civilian  Tribonian,  who  was,  indeed,  a  man 
of  the  most  extensive  learning,  and  whose  genius  has  been  said  to 
have  embraced  all  the  knowledge  of  the  age.  He  wrote  both  in  prose 
and  verse,  on  a  heterogeneous  medley  of  curious  and  abstruse  sub- 
jects ;  and  to  the  literature  of  Greece  he  added  the  use  of  the  Latin 
tongue.  It  may  even  be  observed  of  him,  that  the  cause  of  letters 
flourished  while  he  lived ;  and  his  vast  compilation  of  the  laws  ex- 
hibited a  style  which  would  not  have  dishonoured  the  best  days  of 
literature.  It  must,  however,  be  remarked,  as  a  highly  curious  in- 
cident, that  the  whole  of  his  collection,  many  parts  of  the  Novella 

1  JINt.  Crit.  PLil.  iii.  "i.1]:}. — On  the  fate  of  philosophy,  through  its  various 
stages,  this  author  must  be  consulted,  ii. 

A  A 


354       OP  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.     [A.D.  500 

excepted,  was  written  in  Latin  ;  promulgated  in  the  same  language ; 
and  afterwards  translated  into  Greek  for  the  use  of  the  people.  It 
was  the  pride  of  Justinian  to  be  thought  the  master  of  the  Roman 
world,  of  the  empire  of  which  he  now  meditated  the  recovery  ;  and 
he  chose  therefore,  it  seems,  to  enact  his  laws  in  its  pristine  language. 
The  ancient  legal  sources,  besides,  from  which  the  new  code  was 
collected,  had  circulated  in  that  tongue ;  and  we  may  be  allowed,  I 
think,  from  this  circumstance,  and  still  more  from  that  of  the  new 
compilation  being  published  in  Latin,  to  infer,  that  the  language  of 
Rome  continued  to  be  understood,  at  least  by  the  magistrates  and 
the  learned  men  of  Greece.  It  has  been  objected  to  the  style  of 
Tribonian  and  his  associates,  that  it  was  too  flowery  for  the  general 
subject. 

Some  have  conjectured  that  Stephanus  of  Byzantium,  the  gram- 
marian, lived  in  the  same  reign  of  Justinian,  or  about  that  time ;  but 
as  this  is  by  no  means  certain,  and  only  an  epitome  of  his  great  geo- 
graphical Lexicon  is  extant,1  I  proceed  to  Priscian,  who  has  been 
elsewhere  noticed.  I  mentioned  him  in  another  place,  because, 
though  a  Greek,  and  at  this  time  a  celebrated  teacher  in  Constanti- 
nople, his  pen  was  chiefly  employed  in  elucidating  the  grammar  of 
the  Latin  tongue.  Hence  he  has  been  esteemed  amongst  us  as  the 
prince  of  grammarians.  But  I  here  repeat  his  name,  to  confirm  the 
observation  which  has  just  been  made,  that  the  Latin  language, 
during  the  reign  of  Justinian,  must  have  been  cultivated  by  the 
Greeks,  when  the  laws  of  the  empire  were  promulgated  through  that 
medium,  and  its  grammar  engaged  the  attention  of  their  professors. 

When  I  related  some  events  of  the  Gothic  war,  conducted  by  the 
imperial  general  Belisarius,  the  authority  of  the  historian  Procopius 
was  often  quoted,  concerning  whom  I  will  now  add,  that  he  professed 
eloquence  in  Constantinople,  accompanied  Belisarius  in  his  wars,  and 
was  afterwards  raised  to  the  rank  of  senator  and  prsefect  of  the  city. 
His  works,  which  are  chiefly  historical,  in  eight  books,  comprise  the 
events  of  the  Persic,  the  Vandalic,  and  the  Gothic  wars.  They  are 
written  with  truth  and  elegance,  and  convey  much  important 
information.  The  events  of  the  same  reign  were  continued  by 
Agathias,  in  five  books,  and  in  a  style  of  equal  elegance. 

In  another  work  Procopius  recorded  the  various  buildings  which 
were  raised  or  restored  by  his  master  in  the  capital  or  the  provinces, 
in  the  language  of  courtly  adulation. 

It  has  been  doubted  whether  Procopius  was  the  author  of  the 
History  of  the  private  life  of  Justinian,  under  the  title  of  Anecdotes. 
If  he  was,  such  prevarication,  after  the  praise  which  he  had  lavished 
on  his  sovereign,  must  not  only  sully  the  reputation  of  the  man,  but 
detract  from  the  credit  of  the  historian.  He  wrote  the  Anecdotes,  it 
has  been  said,  by  way  of  retractation,  in  order  to  efface  the  wrong 
impressions  which  his  praises  of  Justinian  had  made.  But  he  who 

1  Bib.  G.  iv.  2,  iii. 


TO  1453.]  JUSTINIAN'S  LEARNING.  355 

will  flatter  is  not  unlikely  to  calumniate.  Whoever  may  have  been 
the  author  of  the  Anecdotes,  or  whatever  the  degree  of  their  truth,  or 
their  falsehood,  they  have  served  as  a  model  to  the  many  chronicles 
of  abusive  history  which  have  since  been  published.1 

Other  writers,  also  coeval  with  Justinian,  laboured  to  illustrate 
the  events  of  his  reign ;  and  their  works  form  a  part  of  the  great 
Byzantine  collection.-  Of  this  collection,  critics  have  observed  that, 
notwithstanding  its  supposed  value,  it  has  one  serious  defect,  which 
is,  that  more  than  half  of  the  authors  which  it  contains — with  the 
exception  of  some  few  passages  in  which  they  do  not  copy  one 
another — do  not  deserve  to  be  read.  Scarcely  any  one  but  Procopius 
is  said  to  have  written  with  a  becoming  dignity ;  and  he  had  formed 
his  style  after  the  model  of  the  ancients. 

But  there  was  a  dearth  of  such  men  as  Procopius  and  Tribonian, 
in  the  line  of  elegant  composition  ;  while  Justinian  himself  might, 
perhaps,  be  exhibited  as  a  just  model  of  the  general  taste  of  his  age. 
lie  was  well  experienced  in  the  labyrinth  of  theological  sophistry ; 
discerned  the  bearings  of  many  intricate  questions ;  could  descant 
on  them  with  facility,  and  even  with  some  depth  of  thought;  and,  in 
his  latter  days,  as  he  ranged  through  the  metaphysical  circle,  he 
eagerly  seized  the  opinion,  "  that  the  body  of  Christ  was  incorrup- 
tible," and  that  it  was  not  subject  to  any  of  the  wants  and  infirmities 
to  which  our  mortal  flesh  is  liable.  This  opinion  was  deemed 
heretical,  but  the  royal  controvertist  carried  it  with  him  to  the 
grave.  Such  was  the  learning  of  Justinian ;  and  the  mind  which 
could  revel  in  such  pursuits  would  be  little  qualified  to  appreciate 
the  value,  much  less  to  enjoy  the  pleasures,  which  arise  from  the 
various  branches  of  elegant  composition.  Had  Justinian  any  taste 
for  the  arts  ? 

Without  recurring  to  facts,  the  question  might  perhaps  be  at 
once  solved  by  the  character  which  I  have  given  of  his  mind ;  but  it 
is  probable  that  he  was  sometimes  induced  to  surrender  his  own 
judgment  to  the  superior  taste  of  his  artists.  The  erection  of  costly 
edifices  may  announce  the  prosperity  of  an  empire,  or  serve  to  gratify 
ambition,  or  be  the  effect  of  a  more  mischievous  passion.  Whatever 
were  the  views  of  Justinian,  the  number  of  buildings  which  he 
erected,  even  taking  into  our  consideration  the  resources  of  a  long 
reign,  almost  exceed  belief.  And  of  these  architectural  labours  it  has 
been  too  harshly  said  : »  "  that  they  were  cemented  with  the  blood  and 

See  Bib.  (iraeco,  v.  5,  \i. 

2  Tin's  collection  (thirty-six  volumes  in  folio),  in  Creek  and  Latin,  pro- 
ceeded from  the-  royal  press  of  the  Louvre,  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  There 
is  :iK.i  a  more  recent  Venetian  edition,  more  copious,  lint  less  nnifrniliccnt. 
The  Gerinau  Hanckius  (De  Scriptoribus,  Hist.  I5yz.  4)  has  -riven  a  diffuse 
history  of  the  By/.antine  writers,  from  which  Fabricius  (Bib.  Grteca)  ex- 
tracted what  he  judged  most  fitting  to  complete  his  own  valuable  work,  of 
which  the  edition  I  use  is  that  of  Hamburgh,  17\>s. 

1  Hist,  of  tbe  Decline  and  Fall,  iv.  88. 

A  A2 


356        OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.     [A.D.  500 

treasure  of  his  people."  His  pious  munificence  was  seen  in  the  con- 
struction of  churches  ;  whilst  almost  every  city  in  the  empire  ob- 
tained the  solid  advantages  of  bridges,  hospitals,  and  aqueducts ;  and 
he  consulted  his  own  ease  in  the  restoration  of  the  palace  at  Byzan- 
tium. There  was  everywhere  a  display  of  magnificence  and  of  the 
most  costly  ornaments. 

But  it  is  in  the  temple,  now  the  mosque,  of  Saint  Sophia,  which 
was  originally  raised  by  Constantine,  but  rebuilt  from  the  foundations 
by  Justinian,  that  we  are  to  look  for  all  the  skill,  taste,  and  munifi- 
cence of  the  age.  It  had  been  twice  destroyed  by  fire  ;  but  it  was 
now  to  rise  resplendent  on  an  improved  and  extended  scale.  The 
principal  architect  was  Anthemius,  who  presided  over  the  imperial 
works.  He  formed  the  design,  and  it  is  said  that  his  genius  directed 
the  hands  of  ten  thousand  workmen.  Justinian,  clad  in  a  linen 
tunic,  every  day  surveyed  the  rapid  progress ;  and  six  years  had  not 
elapsed,  when  he  had  the  happiness  to  behold  its  completion,  and  to 
assist  at  its  solemn  consecration.  After  some  years,  however,  an 
earthquake  overthrew  the  eastern  part  of  the  dome.  The  perseve- 
rance of  the  same  prince  again  restored  its  splendour,  and,  in  the 
thirty-sixth  year  of  his  reign,  he  celebrated  the  second  dedication  of 
a  temple,  which,  after  twelve  centuries,  remains  a  stately  monument 
of  his  fame. 

Of  this  celebrated  structure,  of  its  aerial  dome,  lightly  reposing 
on  arches,  its  columns  of  granite,  of  porphyry,  and  of  green  marble, 
its  semi-domes,  its  walls  encrusted  with  marbles,  its  various  mem- 
bers, admirable  by  their  size  and  beauty,  and  all  embellished  by  a 
rich  profusion  of  jaspers,  gems,  and  precious  metals — I  shall  not 
repeat  the  descriptions  which  many  authors  will  suppl}*.1  But  though 
this  venerable  pile,  which  could  excite  the  admiration  of  the  Greeks, 
even  now,  as  shorn  by  Turkish  fanaticism,  or  the  corrosion  of  time, 
of  its  more  perishable  ornaments,  continues  to  furnish  a  rich  repast 
to  the  curiosity  of  the  traveller,  it  is  generally,  I  think,  agreed,  that 
a  striking  deficiency  is  often  perceptible  in  the  combinations  and 
contrasts  of  parts ;  and  that  Anthemius,  had  he  been  content  to  copy 
the  exquisite  models  which,  in  his  time,  still  adorned  the  cities  of 
Asia  Minor  and  the  provinces  of  Greece,  might  have  produced  a 
work  which  would  at  once  have  been  more  sublime  and  beautiful. 
But  for  this  a  refined  nicety  of  taste  was  necessary,  which  was  no 
longer  to  be  found. 

Besides  Procopius  and  Agathias,  who,  in  their  histories,  have  de- 
scribed what  they  saw,  Paul  Silentiarius,  or  first  secretary  of  Justi- 
nian, in  a  poem  of  one  thousand  and  twenty-six  hexameters,  which, 
during  the  last  Encaenia,8  he  publicly  read  to  the  emperor,  has  like- 

1  See   the  Hist,  of  the  Decline   and  Fall,  iv.  91 — 9C ;  whose  words,  in 
speaking  of  St.  Sophia,  I  have  minutely  copied. 

2  The  Encaenia,  according  to  Pilesius,  were  the  ceremonies  observed  when 
a  newly-erected  edifice  was  consecrated. 


TO  1453.]  THEOLOGICAL    CONTROVERSIES.  357 

wise  celebrated  the  temple  of  St.  Sophia.  "  And  should  it  be  any 
one's  wish,"  observed  Agathias,1  "  though  himself  removed  from  the 
scene,  to  contemplate  its  various  parts,  let  him  cast  his  eyes  on  this 
poem." 

During  the  reigns  of  the  successors  of  Justinian,  to  the  close  of 
the  century,  little  is  said  of  letters  ;  and  the  seventh  opened  with  the 
tyrant  Phocas,  when,  at  the  expiration  of  eight  years,  Heraclius  was 
called  to  the  imperial  throne.  He  reigned  thirty-one  years. 

In  the  Persian  war,  which  ended  not  till  after  a  bloody  period  of 
more  than  twenty  years,  during  the  first  progress  of  which  the 
empire  was  brought  to  the  brink  of  ruin  by  the  conquest  of  its  pro- 
vinces, Heraclius  proved  himself  a  hero.  But  the  continuance  of 
such  a  war,  though  finally  crowned  with  a  complete  triumph  over 
the  mighty  Chosroes,  was"  highly  destructive  not  only  to  population 
and  agriculture,  but  to  letters  and  the  arts.  Every  sinew  of  the 
empire  was  employed  in  its  defence  ;  the  anxiety  of  self-preservation, 
as  we  observed  in  the  fall  of  the  western  kingdoms,  precluded^  every 
other  thought ;  and  literature  sustained  an  irreparable  loss  in  the 
destruction  of  libraries  and  of  the  general  means  of  mental  cultiva- 
tion. I  lamented  the  theological  warfare  of  Justinian,  which, 
engrossing  the  public  attention,  averted  it  from  objects  of  higher 
importance ;  though,  it  must  be  allowed,  that  talents  were  exercised, 
and  the  intellectual  faculty  quickened  by  the  debates  of  polemics. 
When  the  fashion  of  the  day  should  change,  the  volumes  of  elegant 
literature  might  again  be  opened,  and  a  fresh  career  of  excellence 
again  be  run.  In  a  war,  which  had  now  desolated  the  empire,  even 
to  the  gates  of  its  capital,  and  before  the  fervour  of  controversy  had 
cooled,  what  was  there  in  the  common  order  of  things  which  could 
excite  the  expectation  of  better  days  ? 

After  the  exploits  of  six  glorious  campaigns,  Heraclius  might 
justly  be  entitled  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  repose;  but,  in  that 
period,  he  was  unfortunately  prevailed  upon  to  abet  the  views  of  an 
insidious  party,  and,  under  the  notion  of  conciliating  differences,  to 
espouse  an  opinion,  which  again  set  the  churches  of  Christendom  in  a 
flame ;  and  that  at  a  time  when  a  new  enemy  had  arisen  in  the  fol- 
lowers of  Mahomet,  who,  when  eighteen  years  of  the  hegira  had 
scarcely  elapsed,  had  made  a  dreadful  irruption  into  the  empire. 

To  convey  to  the  reader  who  is  not  versed  in  ecclesiastical  records, 
some  further  notion  of  the  questions  which  were  now  agitated,  and 
of  the  extreme  refinement  of  Grecian  subtlety,  it  may  not  be  unac- 
ceptable to  him  to  know  that,  in  a  general  council  at  Ephesus,  in 
431,  it  was  defined  against  Nestorius,  that  in  Christ  was  one  person 
only;  and  at  Chalcedon,  in  451,  against  Eutyches,  that,  in  the  same 
Christ,  were  two  natures.  But  the  Nestorians  still  maintained,  that, 
if  an  unity  of  persons  were  admitted,  an  unity  in  the  natures  fol- 
lowed ;  while  the  Eutychians  insisted  that,  if  there  were  two  natures, 

1  Hist.  v.     See  Bib.  G.  v.  5,  vi. 


358        OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.     [A.D.  500 

there  must  be  two  persons ;  thus  reproaching  the  councils,  in  the 
condemnation  of  each  heresy,  with  the  admission  of  the  respective 
opinions  of  the  heresiarchs.  If  the  two  natures,  after  the  union, 
remained  really  distinct,  how  did  they  form  one  person  ?  This  was 
the  grand  problem,  in  the  solution  of  which  the  Greek  intellect  had 
in  vain  exerted  all  its  powers  of  subtle  disputation.  Might  not  the 
human  nature,  they  now  began  to  reason,  though  distinct  from  the 
divine,  be  in  such  a  manner  united  to  it,  as  to  retain  no  proper  action ; 
so  that  the  Logos  was  the  sole  active  principle ;  whilst  the  human 
will  was  absolutely  passive,  guided  and  impelled  by  the  divine  will, 
as  an  instrument  in  the  hand  of  the  artist  ?  There  is  but  one  per- 
son, they  proceeded  to  reason,  as  Ephesus  defined  ;  but  in  one  person 
there  can  be  but  one  willing,  one  determining  principle  ;  a  plurality 
of  such  principles  would  constitute  a  plurality  of  persons ;  therefore, 
in  Jesus  Christ  there  is  but  one  energy,  one  action,  one  will.  The 
divine  and  human  natures,  as  Chalcedon  defined,  are  indeed  two ; 
but  there  cannot  be  two  acting  principles,  unless  two  persons,  as 
Nestorius  asserted,  be  admitted.  The  proposition  then  is  true, 
"  That  in  Christ,  after  the  union  of  the  two  natures,  there  is  but  one 
will,  and  one  operation."  And  they  concluded  that  this  doctrine, 
while  it  enforces  the  definitions  of  the  two  councils,  must  tend  to 
reconcile  the  adverse  parties,  or  must  silence  the  reproaches  which 
they  have  hitherto  uttered.  The  Nestorians  cannot  say  that  we 
confound  the  natures,  because  we  maintain  that  they  are  distinct, 
and  that  the  human  is  subordinate  to  the  divine ;  nor  can  the  Euty- 
chians  say,  that  we  establish  two  persons,  because,  as  is  evident,  we 
admit  but  one  acting  principle,  one  operation,  one  will. 

It  was  this  doctrine,  called  Monothelitism,  which  Heraclius  espoused, 
with  a  view  of  conciliation,  and  prompted  to  the  measure  by  the 
advice  of  Sergius,  the  patriarch  of  Byzantium.  Its  tendency  to 
Eutychianism  could  hardly  be  mistaken,  and  it  was  afterwards 
adopted  by  the  patriarch  of  Alexandria,  and,  on  the  representation 
of  Sergius,  by  the  Roman  bishop  Honorius.  But  the  intention  of 
the  latter,  though  he  explicitly  admitted  the  doctrine,  was  to  repress 
all  further  disputes,  by  adopting  a  system  of  general  silence.  Amongst 
the  churches  of  apostolic  foundation,  the  new  tenet  was  resisted  only 
by  Sophronius  of  Jerusalem.  Had  the  advisers  of  Heraclius  been 
sincere,  they  would  have  persevered  in  the  silence  which  they  first 
recommended ;  but  it  is  plain  that  their  wish  was  to  advance  a 
favourite  doctrine,  and  to  procure  its  enforcement  by  imperial  autho- 
rity. A  mandate  was  therefore  issued  under  the  name  of  Ecthesis, 
or  exposition,  which,  professing  to  impose  on  all  persons  a  law  of 
silence  in  the  use  of  certain  obnoxious  expressions,  announced  mono- 
thelitism,  without  further  reserve,  as  the  doctrine  of  truth. 

War  being  thus  proclaimed,  the  several  combatants  eagerly  took 
sides,  as  the  influence  of  particular  motives  happened  to  preponderate. 
The  western  church  was  engaged ;  the  successors  of  Heraclius,  par- 
ticularly his  grandson  Constans,  supported  the  same  measures  :  a 
Roman  synod  fulminated  anathemas,  whilst  it  announced  its  orthodox 


TO  1453.]   DECLINE  OF  PHILOSOPHY  AND  HISTORY.      359 

faith.  And  finally,  in  680,  a  sixth  general  council,  assembled  at  Con- 
stantinople, which  was  patronised  by  the  reigning  emperor  Constan- 
tine  Pogonatus,  who  had  relinquished  the  errors  of  his  fathers,  con- 
firmed  the  decisions  of  Rome,  and  involving  many  prelates  ot  the 
East,  and  the  Roman  bishop  Honorius  in  the  same  sentence,  consigned 
their  names  to  execration.  But  till  a  new  controversy  arose  in  the 
beginning  of  the  next  century,  it  could  not  fairly  be  pronounced  that 
the  Grecian  mind  was  withdrawn  from  these  abstruse  speculations. 

In  accounting  for  the  motives  which  gave  such  a  vigorous  impulse 
to  these  inquiries,  I  omitted  to  mention  the  final  close  of  the  schools 
of  philosophy.  These  had  furnished  perpetual  occupation  to  the 
public  mind.  But  what  has  been  called  the  golden  chain  of  succes- 
sion, which  bound  together  the  disciples  of  the  modern  Platomsts, 
was  broken  in  Syria,  in  Greece,  or  in  Egypt ;  Gentilism  was  com- 
pletely cast  down,  and  the  cloak  of  the  philosopher  was  no  longer 
deemed,  as  it  had  been  in  former  days,  a  graceful  covering  to  the 
shoulders  of  the  Christian.  As  the  studies  of  the  philosophers 
ceased,  the  controversies  which  I  described  were  ready  to  give  em- 
ployment to  talents  of  every  species ;  if  the  rise  of  these  contro- 
versies may  not  itself  be  viewed  as  the  principal  incident  in  the 
tissue  of  causes  which  effected  the  downfal  of  philosophy.1  I  would 
not,  however,  be  thought  to  mean  that  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle 
was  also  fallen  into  disrepute ;  for  it  was  under  his  direction,  or 
rather  with  the  use  of  his  logical  subtleties,  that  the  points  in  litiga- 
tion were  so  eagerlv  maintained. 

The  very  concise  list  of  those  who  wrote  in  every  branch  of  pro- 
fane learning,  and  the  uninteresting  character  of  their  writings— if 
we  except  the  "prolix  and  florid"  History  of  the  Emperor  Mauritius, 
by  Theophylact  Simocatta— release  the  critic  from  the  task  of  anim- 
adversion. This  work  was  written  about  the  year  628,  and  m 
eight  books  records  the  events  of  the  reign  of  Mauritius,  terminating 
in  602.  The  affectation  and  allegory  of  the  style  have  been  cen- 
sured. A  dialogue  is  introduced  in  the  preface,  in  which  philosophy 
and  history,  having  seated  themselves  under  a  plane-tree,  and  the 
latter  having  touched  her  lyre,  complain  that  they  had  both  been 
neglected  under  the  tyrant  Phocas ;  but  when  Heraclius  had  seized 
the  sceptre,  a  more  cheering  prospect  opened  before  them.2 
hopes,  however,  were  frustrated,  for  our  great  historian  and  critic, 
as  he  begins  the  reign  of  Heraclius,3  utters  also  his  complaint :  "  We 
must  now,"  he  says,  "  for  some  ages  take  our  leave  of  contempo- 
rary historians,  and  descend,  if  it  be  a  descent,  from  the  affectation 
of  rhetoric  to  the  rude  simplicity  of  chronicles  and  abridgments.' 
The  fate  of  philosophy  was  riot  more  prosperous. 

When  we  turn  to  the  more  copious  stores  of  ecclesiastical  learning 
we  find  little  to  repay  the  labour  of  perusal.     A  turgid  eloquence 

1  The  laborious  pen  of  Brucker  (iii. )  is  now  at  a  loss  for  matter. 
-  See  Bib.  G.  L.'v.  r>,  vi.  3  Hist,  of  JUecL  and  Fall,  iv.  500. 


360        OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.     [A.D.  500 

observes  an  author,1  whom  I  quote  with  pleasure,  and  an  affected 
pomp  and  splendour  of  style,  which  cast  a  perplexing  obscurity  over 
subjects  which  are  in  themselves  the  most  perspicuous,  formed  the 
highest  point  of  perfection  to  which  genius  aspired.  They  received, 
with  the  most  indiscriminate  indifference,  the  most  vulgar  reports 
concerning  the  events  of  ancient  times,  and  of  those  composed  the 
Lives  of  several  saints,  compilations  which  have,  with  truth,  been 
defined  to  be  "  a  heap  of  insipid  and  ridiculous  fables,  void  often  of 
the  least  air  of  probability,  and  without  the  smallest  tincture  of 
eloquence." 

I  chiefly  allude  to  a  work  of  John  Moschus,  entitled,  the  Meadow 
or  New  Paradise,  written  in  a  low  and  barbarous  style.  He  was 
himself  a  monk,  who,  early  in  this  century,  having  visited  the  cells 
of  the  Coenobites  in  Syria  and  Egypt,  and  even  travelled  into  the 
west,  undertook  to  relate  the  wonderful  lives  of  the  recluses  whom 
he  had  seen,  or  of  whose  singular  austerities  and  modes  of  life  he  had 
been  informed.  Not  satisfied  with  the  simple  truth  of  many  extra- 
ordinary facts,  Moschus  intermixed  much  matter  which  we  must 
necessarily  deem  fabulous,  but  which  found  readers  in  that  and  in  a 
subsequent  period,  as  ignorance  spread  her  veil  of  darkness,  and  the 
Meadow  itself  soon  proved  a  fertile  repository  from  which  the  Latins 
•drew  many  stores  with  the  utmost  avidity. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  as  a  curious  fact  in  the  history  of  man,  that 
in  proportion  to  his  intellectual  degradation,  no  narrative  gives  any 
delight  which  is  not  distorted  by  tales  of  wonder,  the  glare  of  the 
marvellous,  and  the  most  incongruous  perversions  both  of  taste  and  of 
truth.  But  let  me  not  omit  to  mention,  that  while  Moschus  was  thus 
employed,  a  contemporary  monk,  called  John  Climacus,2  with  a  view 
to  perfect  the  ascetic  life,  exhibited  a  series  of  maxims  in  a  work  of 
great  fame,  entitled  Climax,  or  the  Ladder  of  Paradise,  which  has 
formed  the  text  book  of  many  scholia  and  even  massy  commentaries. 

When  works  like  the  Meadow  of  Moschus  are  not  rejected,  and 
they  would  not  be  written  were  rejection  apprehended,  they  form  a 
criterion  by  which  our  opinions  may  be  safely  regulated.  We  may 
determine  that  the  art  of  criticism  was  neglected,  that  is,  that  writers 
had  ceased  to  be  governed  by  the  rules  of  good  sense,  and  that  readers 
were  better  pleased  with  extravagant  fictions  than  with  the  sober 
statements  of  reality  and  truth.  From  the  character  of  this  popular 
work,  and  from  other  unerring  symptoms,  we  may  infer  that  the 
general  tone  of  the  Grecian  taste  was  at  this  time  extremely  low ; 
and  that,  if  it  still  maintained  a  level  somewhat  superior  to  that  of 
the  west,  the  superiority  arose  from  the  dispositions  of  a  people 
naturally  animated  and  sprightly,  whose  blood  had  been  vitiated  by 
BO  gross  commixture,  and  whose  language  was  yet  pure.  . 

1  Mosheim,  Eccles.  Hist.  ii.  167. 

*  On  these  two  writers,  see  Dupin,  Bib.  Eccles.  Siecle  vii.  See  also, 
•with  reference  to  Climachus,  the  1 7th  volume  of  the  Histoire  Generate  des 
Autewrs  sacres  et  ecclesiastiques,  of  Dom  Cellier,  page  5C9. 


TO  1453.]  LEO  THE  ISAURIAN ICONOCLASM.  361 

Not  more  than  twenty  years  of  the  ensuing  century,  which  were 
incessantly  disturbed  by  commotions,  had  elapsed,  when  it  appeared 
that  the  spirit  of  controversy,  weakened  by  long  exertions,  was 
inclined  to  repose,  and  perhaps  to  contemplate,  even  with  some 
remorse,  the  many  evils  which  it  had  blindly  entailed  on  religion 
and  the  empire,  when  a  man,  whose  life  had  hitherto  been  spent  in 
the  array  of  armies  and  in  the  field  of  battle,  presented  a  new  ques- 
tion, or  rather  gave  a  new  importance  to  one  which  had  before  been 
slightly  agitated.  This  man  was  Leo  the  Isaurian,1  who  was 
raised  to  the  imperial  throne  in  716,  and  the  founder  of  a  new 
dynasty.  In  an  assembly  of  senators  and  bishops  he  declared,  and 
is  soon  afterwards  said  to  have  enacted,  with  their  consent,  that 
"  the  making  of  images  was  an  unlawful  act,  and  the  veneration  of 
them  idolatry."  Leo  might  have  been  seriously  disgusted  by  the 
abuses  of  image  worship,  and  was  resolved  to  check  its  progress. 
Emulous  of  the  theological  fame  of  his  predecessors,  and  himself 
incapable  of  abstruse  disquisitions,  he  chose  a  subject  on  which  the 
most  unlettered  mind  could  reason  with  some  plausibility  :  but  the 
fact  seems  to  have  been,  that  the  railleries  and  reproaches  which 
were  cast  on  the  practice  by  the  Jews  and  the  disciples  of  Mahomet, 
had  roused  his  indignation ;  and  he  was  resolved  to  signalize  his 
reign  by  its  suppression.2 

Scenes  of  extreme  violence,  spreading  from  the  capital  to  the 
provinces,  ensued,  the  excesses  of  which  might  surprise  a  temperate 
observer,  were  he  not  aware  that  moderation  was  no  ingredient  in 
the  Grecian  character ;  and  that  objects  less  allied  to  his  feelings 
than  the  statues  and  images  of  the  venerable  dead,  had  seemed  often 
to  engage  his  warmest  attachments.  No  persuasions,  nor  the 
infliction  of  the  severest  chastisements,  could  prevail  upon  the 
people  to  comply  with  the  orders  of  their  prince.  When  he  com- 
manded the  image  to  be  taken  from  a  favourite  cross,  the  man  who 
undertook  the  work  was  furiously  assailed,  j^was  dashed  upon  the 
ground,  and  torn  in  pieces  by  the  frantic  women.  The  arts  them- 
selves had  some  reason  to  deplore  the  spirit  of  Iconoclasm,  which, 
with  an  indiscriminate  rage,  often  destroyed  many  beautiful  monu- 
ments of  taste.  A  second  edict  had  proscribed  the  existence,  as  well 
as  the  use,  of  religious  images ;  and  whenever  it  could  be  carried 
into  execution,  they  were  demolished,  or  a  smooth  surface  of  plaster 
was  spread  over  the  walls. 

If  there  be  truth  in  the  statement  of  a  later  writer,3  literature 
itself,  low  as  its  condition  was,  had  ample  cause  of  lamentation.  A 
royal  edifice,  he  says,  had  been  erected,  in  which  many  volumes  of 
profane  and  sacred  learning  were  deposited  ;  and  where,  from  ancient 
times,  he  was  allowed  to  dwell  who,  having  proved  his  superiority 

1  Lebeau,  xiii.  2  See  Baronius,  Annal.  an.  72C. 

3  Zonanus,  Annnl.  iii.  sub  Leone  Isaur. — Zonaros  was  a  Greek  monk  who 
wrote  in  the  twelfth  century. 


362        OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.     [A.D.  500 

in  letters,  was  styled  the  oecumenical  doctor.  His  associates  were 
twelve  other  learned  men,  who  were  maintained  at  the  public 
expense,  to  whom,  whoever  was  ambitious  of  acquiring  knowledge, 
resorted,  and  whom  the  emperors  themselves  consulted  in  the  busi- 
ness of  the  state.  Leo  would  have  deemed  the  accomplishment  of 
his  designs  no  longer  uncertain,  if  the  sanction  of  these  men  could 
have  been  obtained,  lie  laid  before  them  his  views  :  he  made  use 
of  caresses  and  of  threats.  But  when  nothing  could  prevail  he 
dismissed  them  ;  and  commanding  the  building  to  be  surrounded 
with  dry  wood,  consumed  them  and  ,the]  rich  treasure  which  they 
guarded,  of  thirty  thousand  volumes,  in  the  flames. 

Candour  will  receive  with  caution  this  account,  which  is  unsup- 
ported by  any  contemporary  evidence;  but  we  are  compelled,  by  less 
questionable  authority,1  to  look  on  the  Isaurian  as  a  tyrant  impatient 
of  control.  When  he  experienced  any  resistance,  he  deemed  no 
vengeance  too  severe — however  venerable  the  object,  for  age,  for 
piety,  for  science,  or  for  birth.  "  The  schools  devoted  to  education 
were  closed,  and  the  means  of  acquiring  knowledge  extinguished, 
that  had  flourished  from  the  times  of  the  great  Constantine." 

The  news  of  the  hostile  attacks  on  images,  when  carried  into 
Italy,  excited  commotions  in  that  country :  those  of  the  emperor, 
which  it  had  been  customary  to  exhibit,  were  contemptuously 
beaten  down,  and  treated  with  indignity :  armies  even  were  raised, 
which  vauntingly  talked  of  electing  another  emperor,  and  of  con- 
veying him  in  triumph  to  Constantinople.  This  was  an  idle  menace ; 
but  as  the  minds  of  the  Italians  were  daily  more  and  more  alienated 
from  the  Byzantine  government,  these  proceedings  served  to  give 
birth  to  the  design  which  the  Roman  bishops  soon  eagerly  embraced, 
of  imploring  the  aid  of  the  Franks,  and  of  withdrawing  their  fealty 
from  a  court  which  could  no  longer  protect  them. 

This  ignoble  contest  concerning  image-  worship  continued  through 
the  twenty-four  years  of  the  reign  of  Leo,  and  was  perpetuated 
through  the  longer  reign  of  his  son,  Constantine  V. ;  and  with  short 
pauses  of  intermission,  it  was  protracted]  into  the  following  century, 
though,  in  787,  the  empress  Irene,  who  had  declared  herself  the 
friend  of  images,  procured,  in  their  favour,  the  celebration  of  the 
second  orthodox  synod  of  Nice. 

Were  the  reader  curious  to  peruse  any  productions  of  the  age  as 
a  sample  of  its  literature,  I  should  be  disposed  to  refer  him  to  the 
writings  which  the  image-controversy  provoked.2  When  the  mind 
is  most  animated,  its  efforts  are  most  vigorous  and  energetic ;  and 
what  is  then  done  may  be  considered  as  a  just  criterion  of  its 
powers.  I  will  not  anticipate  the  judgment  of  others,  but  I  may  be 

1  Hist.  Miscel.  xxi.  inter  Rer.  Ital.  Script.  Paul.  Diac.  Hist.  Longobard 
yi.  49,  ibid. 

2  They  may  be  found,  Latin  as  well  as  Greek,  ill  the  Acts  of  the  Seventh 
Council. 


TO  1353.]  ST.  JOHN  DAMASCENE.  363 

allowed  to  say,  that  nothing  written  on  that  controversy,  or  on  any 
other  subject',  can  free  the  eighth  century  from  the  heavy  censure 
which  was  merited  by  the  preceding.  Frigid  homilies,  it  has  been 
remarked,'  insipid  narrations  of  the  exploits  of  some  pretended 
worthies,  vain  and  subtle  disputes  about  unessential  and  trivial  sub- 
jects, vehement  and  bombastic  declamations  for  and  against  the 
erection  and  worship  of  images,  histories  composed  without  method 
or  judgment — such  were  the  monuments  of  Grecian  learning  in  this 
deluded  age. 

St.  John  Damascenus,2  as  a  theologian  and  a  philosopher,  a  man 
of  genius  and  of  eloquence,  while  he  illustrated  many  points  of  the 
Christian  doctrine,  in  a  variety  of  productions,  which  are  not  void  of 
erudition,  and  signalized  himself  in  defence  of  images,  contributed 
in  no  small  degree  to  the  illustration  and  progress  of  the  Aristote- 
lian philosophy.  Born  at  Damascus,  while  that  city  was  the  prin- 
cipal seat  of  the  Saracenic  empire,  he  held  no  inconsiderable  office 
in  the  service  of  the  caliph.  But  as  he  had  a  predilection ^for  retire- 
ment, he  withdrew  to  a  cell  near  Jerusalem,  where  he  devoted  his 
days  to  study.  The  work  which  he  composed  on  the  doctrines  of 
the  Stagirite,  for  the  instruction  of  the  more  ignorant,  and  in  a 
manner  adapted  to  common  capacities,  has  been  pronounced  to  be 
concise,  plain,  and  comprehensive.  It  excited  many,  both  in 
Greece  and  Syria,  to  the  study  of  that  philosophy ;  and  the  author 
himself,  from  the  use  which  he  made  of  it  on  other  occasions,  has  been 
deemed,  if  not  the  first,  at  least  among  the  first,  who  adopted  a  phi- 
losophic method  in  treating  the  points  of  Christian  belief,  and  en- 
grafted Peripateticism  on  theology.  Hence  some  have  numbered 
the  Damascene  among  the  parents  of  the  numerous  family  of  scho- 
lastics who  soon  filled  all  the  Christian  schools.  To  make  the 
genius  of  Aristotle  subservient  to  the  interests  of  a  cause,  the  simple 
character  of  which  seemed  to  have  so  little  occasion  for  his  aid, 
might  have  been  thought  as  ingenious  as  it  was  arduous  :  but  let 
others  decide,  whether  that  cause  was  more  benefited  by  the 
attempt,  than  it  had  previously  been  by  its  forced  alliance  with  the 
theories  of  Plato. •< 

The  attachment  of  John  Damascenus  to  the  pursuits  of  science,  and 
particularly  to  the  process  of  reasoning  prescribed  by  the  rules  of 
Aristotle,  should,  it  seems,  have  given  solidity  to  the  judgment, 
have  curbed  the  fancy,  and,  with  respect  to  facts  and  opinions,  have 
encouraged  a  severe  and  critical  caution  ;  but  while  he  is  charged 
I  iv  some  with  a  sordid  superstition,  and  an  excessive  veneration  for 
all  which  the  ancient  fathers  had  asserted,  men  of  more  moderation 
cannot  conceal  his  credulity.  "  In  many  of  his  writings,"  candidly 
owns  Baronius,4  "  our  belief  is  staggered,  while  falsehoods  are 

1  Mosbeim,  Cent.  viii.  1.  -  Dom  Ceilier,  xviii.  116. 

3  Unpin,  P.ili.  Kccles.  siecle  viii.  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  Bincker  Hist.  Crit.  iii. 
5:11.  Jiib.  C.  v.  :!(),  viii.  4  Anual.  ad  an.  :tl.  n.  ?">. 


364        OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.     [A.D.  500 

unsparingly  scattered."  When  a  writer,  who  was  confessedly  the 
most  learned  of  his  age,  can  be  thus  accused,  we  want  no  other  proof 
of  its  degeneracy.  He  died  about  the  year  750. 

Among  the  few  writers  in  the  Byzantine  series,  who  lived  about 
this  time,  and  who  compiled  Chronicles,  not  the  least  considerable 
are  George  Syncellus  and  his  continuator,  Theophanes  ;  of  whom  the 
first,  beginning  with  the  creation,  comes  no  further  than  the  year 
285  of  our  aera,  whilst  the  second,  starting  from  this  period,  con- 
tinued the  work  to  the  year  813.  In  regard  to  style  and  accuracy 
of  narration,  the  standard  of  these  chronicles,  particularly  of  that  of 
Theophanes,  though  in  some  parts  deserving  of  praise,  is  not  much 
above  the  level  of  their  contemporaries  in  the  western  world.1 

It  may  then  seem,  on  a  fair  comparison  between  the  east  and  west, 
that  a  deplorable  approximation  was  threatened :  and  when  a  writer 
of  great  eminence,2  whose  days  had  been  spent  in  literary  research, 
does  not  hesitate  to  affix  the  epithet  barbarous  to  the  era  on  the  his- 
tory of  which  he  enters,  the  scene,  I  own,  opens  with  nothing 
alluring  to  the  view.  But  the  reproach  belongs  to  the  last,  rather 
than  to  the  ninth  century,  for,  besides  the  evidence  which  facts  will 
establish,  the  same  author  himself  admits,  that  towards  the  middle  of 
its  course,  some  light  shone  on  general  literature,  and  on  philosophy. 
It  may  then,  I  think,  be  said,  that  the  ninth  century  was  in  many 
regards  an  auspicious  period.  It  opened  in  the  West  with  the 
splendid  undertakings  of  Charlemagne;  in  the  East,  properly  so 
called,  where  the  Abbassidae  reigned,  and  in  other  parts  of  the  Sara- 
cenic empire,  science  and  the  muses  prospered  in  mutual  harmony. 
At  Byzantium  we  shall  behold  a  great  character  arise,  the  author 
indeed  of  many  troubles,  but  the  friend  of  learning,  and  himself  pro- 
foundly learned ;  while  many  others  were  engaged  in  the  generous 
office  of  communicating  to  the  Arabian  schools  the  various  stores  of 
science  with  which  themselves  had  been  enriched. 

Under  the  weak  or  wicked  princes  who  filled  the  throne  through 
many  years  of  this  century,  all  taste  for  letters,  had  it  depended 
on  them,  must  have  been  more  and  more  extinguished,  and  all  zeal 
for  their  cultivation  at  an  end.  But  there  were  churchmen  endowed 
with  better  minds,  the  protectors  and  friends  of  science,  among 
whom  Nicephorus  the  partriarch  of  Constantinople  was  eminently 
conspicuous.3  Having  received  from  nature,  ever  beneficent  to  the 
Greeks,  more  than  common  talents,  he  carried  them  to  the  highest 
point  of  improvement  of  which  they  were  susceptible ;  was  employed 
in  offices  of  trust ;  was  promoted  to  the  Byzantine  chair  :  but  when 
Leo,  called  the  Armenian,  renewed  the  image- controversy,  he 
strenuously  resisted  his  edicts,  and  was  sent  into  exile.  Among  his 
principal  works  is  an  Abridgment  of  History,  from  the  death  of 

1  See  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.,  also  Bib.  G.  v.  iv.  vi. 

2  Bracker,  Hist.  Grit.  iii.  536. 

3  Dom  Cellier,  xviii. 


TO  1453.]  NICEPHORUS MICHAEL    III.  365 

Mauritius,  in  602,  to  the  year  769,  which  may  be  read  as  a  continua- 
tion of  that  of  Theophylact  Simocatta,  and  of  which  an  eminent 
judge1  has  pronounced,  that  its  style  has  nothing  superfluous, 
nothing  obscure ;  that  the  words  are  well  chosen,  and  its  general 
composition  neither  too  diffuse  nor  too  compressed,  as  might  be 
expected  in  a  scholar  whose  taste  had  been  formed  upon  the  best 
models.  He  omits  recent  facts  if  not  supported  by  evidence ;  he 
copies  those  of  ancient  date  when  their  truth  has  been  confirmed. 
His  narrative  is  agreeable  ;  and,  if  he  has  not  left  many  of  his  pre- 
decessors in  history  behind  him,  we  must  ascribe  it  to  a  brevity 
which  is  incompatible  with  many  beauties  of  elegant  composition. 

I  find  also,  chiefly  in  the  ecclesiastical  annals,  the  names  of  other 
men  famed  for  various  learning ;  but  who,  engaging  with  new  vigour 
in  the  revived  controversy,  expended  in  it  all  the  stores  of  science 
winch  had  been  acquired  through  a  life  of  labour.  The  monk  Theo- 
dorus,  called  Studites,  was  at  the  head  of  these ;  and  though  image- 
worship,  as  the  chief  monuments  of  the  age  attest,  could  number  the 
most  eminent  scholars  amongst  its  patrons,  Theodorus  far  surpassed 
them  all  in  zeal  and  violence.- 

But  when  the  second  Michael,  distinguished  by  the  ignoble  name 
of  Stammerer,  occupied  the  throne — a  prince  of  low  vices,  and  to 
whom  not  only  the  knowledge  but  even  the  name  of  letters  was 
odious — he  embraced  the  plan  of  stifling  all  the  powers  of  mind  in 
the  germ,  lest  their  future  growth  might  reproach  him  with  his 
ignorance.  So  hostile,  says  the  historian,3  was  he  to  learning,  that 
he  would  not  allow  the  youth  to  be  instructed.  He  feared  lest  they 
might  thence  derive  effectual  means  of  judging  the  folly  of  his 
actions,  or,  by  learning  to  read,  surpass  the  attainments  of  their 
emperor ;  for  so  slow  was  he  in  the  arrangement  of  his  syllables, 
that  while  he  put  together  the  letters  of  his  own  name,  another 
might  with  ease  peruse  a  volume. 

I  pass  over  the  reign  of  his  son  and  successor  Theophilus,  to 
come  to  that  of  Michael  III.,  than  whom  a  more  vile  and  flagi- 
tious monster  had  not  disgraced  the  purple  since  the  days  of  Nero 
and  Eliogabalus.  Yet  it  was  in  this  reign  that  the  light  of  which  I 
spoke  began  to  dawn.  That  he  might  not  be  disturbed  in  his 
career  of  pleasure,  Michael  had  entrusted  the  reins  of  government 
to  his  uncle  Bardas,  a  prince  of  slender  talents,  and  of  no  literary 
acquirements,  but  who  knew  their  value,  and  became  their  protector.4 
lie  was  sensible,  it  is  said,  how  prejudicial  the  disgraceful  ignorance 
which  had  prevailed  had  been  to  the  interests  of  the  empire  ;  and  he 
beheld  with  pain  the  splendour  of  science  which  now  surrounded 
the  throne  of  the  Caliphs.  "  Philosophy,"  says  the  historian,5  "  lay 

1  Photius.  Biblioth.  cod.  00.     See  also  Bib.  G.  v.  f>,  vi. 

2  See  Baron.  Amial.  in:.,  passim.     Also  Bib.  G.  v.  :J3,  ix.     Dora  Cellier, 
xviii. 

3  /onuras,  Annul,  in  Michael.  <  Dom  Cellier,  xix.  and  xxii. 
*  Zouaras,  Anna),  iii. 


366        OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.     [A.D.  500 

neglected,  and  in  a  manner  so  extinct,  that  not  a  spark  was  visible. 
The  ignorance  of  our  emperors  had  caused  it.  Bardas  opened  schools 
for  every  art,  appointed  professors,  and  regulated  their  salaries,  com- 
mitting the  superintendence  to  the  philosopher  Leo."  Of  this  Leo, 
at  one  time  bishop  of  Thessalonica,  the  same  writer  speaks  in 
terms  of  high  commendation,  extolling  his  universal  learning, 
and  particularly  his  profound  skill  in  astronomy  and  the  mathe- 
matics, which  had  excited  the  admiration  of  the  Arabians.  In  a 
letter  to  the  late  emperor  Theophilus,  the  caliph  Almamon  had 
entreated  that  Leo  might  be  sent  to  reside  for  a  short  time  at  his 
court  at  Bagdad,  during  which  he  might  impart  to  him  some  portion 
of  his  learning.  He  even  expressed  a  wish  to  have  come  in  person  to 
Byzantium  if  it  had  been  compatible  with  the  avocations  of  his 
government.  "  And  let  not  diversity  of  religion,"  he  added,  "  nor 
diversity  of  country  cause  you  to  refuse  my  request.  Do  what 
friendship  would  demand  from  friends.  In  return,  I  offer  you  a 
hundred  weight  of  gold,  a  perpetual  alliance,  and  peace."  Theophilus 
rudely  rejected  the  request,  observing,  that  the  sciences,  which  had 
shed  lustre  on  the  Roman  name,  should  not  be  communicated  to 
barbarians. 

Under  this  illustrious  instructor,  who  was  prompt  in  diffusing  the 
various  learning  with  which  his  own  mind  was  stored,  we  are  told 
that  the  schools  flourished,  and  that  science  once  more  raised  her 
head.  Bardas  inspired  emulation  by  his  presence ;  and  extending 
his  views  to  the  courts  of  justice,  he  was  not  less  successful  in 
restoring  a  due  application  to  the  study  of  the  laws,  which  had 
experienced  equal  neglect.  The  praise  which  these  exertions 
merited  is  not  denied  to  Bardas  ;  but  his  enemies  say  that  this  was 
the  only  praise  to  which  he  could  justly  pretend.  His  conduct  in 
other  respects  was  open  to  severe  animadversions. 

In  the  year  858,  Ignatius,  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  having 
been  expelled  from  his  see  by  the  machinations  of  Bardas,  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Photius1 — the  great  personage  to  whom  I  alluded  as  the 
ornament  of  the  age.  He  was  distinguished  by  his  birth,  by  the 
offices  which  he  had  discharged  in  the  imperial  court,  but  more  by 
his  erudition  :  and  we  cannot  doubt  but  that  it  was  his  instigation 
which  had  excited  Bardas  to  become  the  patron  of  letters.  We  are 
told,  that  there  was  no  art  or  science  with  which  this  universal 
scholar  was  not  acquainted.  He  was  without  a  competitor  amongst 
his  contemporaries,  and  was  not  unworthy  to  contend  for  the  palm 
with  the  most  learned  of  the  ancients.  We  may  readily  grant  that 
he  was  not  devoid  of  ambition ;  but  it  cannot  be  shown  that  he 
willingly  sacrificed  the  freedom  of  a  secular  and  studious  life  for  the 
post  of  honour,  which  was  to  him  a  post  of  vexation  and  of  toil ;  and 
he  himself  declared,  both  in  public  and  in  his  private  correspondence, 
the  reluctance  with  which  he  had  obeyed  the  call  of  his  friends.  But 

1  Dom  Cellier,  xix. 


TO  1453.]  PHOTIUS.  367 

no  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  the  statements  as  they  come  from 
either  party,  distorted  by  prejudice,  and  aggravated  by  irritation. 
According  to  the  representation  of  his  enemies,  Photius  was  possessed 
by  every  vice  by  which  human  nature  can  be  debased;  whilst,  in 
the  estimation  of  his  friends,  all  the  virtues  centered  in  his  character 
refined  by  education,  and  embellished  by  science. 

It  is  foreign  to  my  purpose  to  detail  the  incidents  of  the  contro- 
versy that  now  opened,  in  which  the  court  of  Byzantium,  the 
patriarchal  sees  of  the  eastern  churches,  priests,  monks,  and  men  of 
all  ranks  and  ages,  the  prelates  dependent  on  Rome,  and  at  their 
head  the  Roman  bishop  himself,  engaged  with  the  most  infuriated 
animosity.  I  will  barely  state,  that,  in  861,  a  synod  at  Constanti- 
nople, which  was  numerously  attended,  pronounced  a  formal  sentence 
of  deposition  against  Ignatius  ;  that  pope  Nicolas  become  a  party  in 
the  quarrel,  in  the  highest  tones  of  authority  announced  his  opposi- 
tion to  Photius,  and,  in  a  synod,  after  a  revision  of  his  cause  and 
conduct,  deprived  him  of  all  sacerdotal  and  clerical  dignity ;  that 
Photius,  emboldened  by  the  strong  countenance  of  his  sovereign, 
having  in  another  synod  stated  the  crimes  of  Nicolas,  deposed  him 
in  return,  and  proceeded  to  indite  a  list  of  charges  against  the  whole 
Latin  church ;  that,  in  867,  on  the  accession  of  Basil  to  the  imperial 
throne,  Photius  was  exiled,  and  Ignatius  solemnly  reinstated  in  the 
patriarchal  chair ;  that,  two  years  after  this,  with  a  view,  it  was  said, 
of  terminating  all  disputes,  a  council,  called  the  eighth  oecumenical, 
was  convened  at  Constantinople,  before  which  the  exiled  patriarch 
was  summoned  to  appear.  After  different  citations,  he  appeared  in 
the  fifth  session  ;  and  standing  in  the  lowest  place,  heard  in  silence 
the  taunting  questions  which  were  asked ;  nor  could  any  authority 
prevail  upon  him  to  answer  the  leading  demand  of  the  Roman  dele- 
gates, which  was — whether  he  would  submit  to  the  decrees  of  their 
pontiffs  ?  He  withdrew.  In  the  seventh  session  he  again  entered, 
leaning  on  a  staff.  "  Take  that  staff  from  him,"  exclaimed  Marinus, 
one  of  the  papal  deputies  :  "  it  is  an  emblem  of  pastoral  dignity, 
unbefitting  him  who  is  a  wolf,  and  no  shepherd."  The  staff  was 
taken  from  his  hand ;  when,  after  some  questions,  Photius  exhorted 
the  legates  to  repent  of  what  they  had  done  against  him.  They 
rejected  the  advice  with  indignation ;  and  proposed  other  measures. 
L  have  no  answer  to  give  to  calumnies,"  were  his  last  words.  In 
this  session  anathemas  were  pronounced  against  him  and  his  adhe- 
rents.1 

Thus  anathematised,  separated  from  his  relations,  his  family, 
his  friends,  his  servants,  and  deprived  of  his  books  which  he 
valued  more  than  life,  the  forlorn  prelate  \v;is  again  driven  into 
exile.  "  The  last  privation,"  he  complains,  in  a  letter  to  the  emperor, 
'•  a  new  and  unheard  of  punishment,  was  invented  for  me."  This 

1  I  have  followed  in  this  account  the  original  documents  as  copied  bj 
Barouius,  Annal.  Sac.  ix. ;  also  the  acts  cf  the  Eighth  Council,  Cone.  vi. 


368        OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

was  in  the  year  870.  How  long  this  state  of  exile  continued 
does  not  appear  :  but  after  a  lapse  of  not  many  years  he  recovered 
the  favour  of  his  prince  ;  was  once  more  powerful  in  the  palace ; 
was  entrusted  with  the  education  of  the  sons  of  Basil ;  and  is 
said  even  to  have  exercised,  though  uniformly  opposed  by  Igna- 
tius, some  of  the  functions  of  the  patriarchal  charge.  Not  satis- 
fied with  this  reparation  of  honour,  Basil  again  restored  him  to 
the  vacant  chair  on  the  death  of  Ignatius  in  878,  and,  after  a  series 
of  curious  transactions  with  the  pontiff,  John  VIII.,  effected  his 
complete  reconciliation  with  Rome.  John  reversed  the  sentence  of 
the  ecumenical  council,  absolved  Photius  from  all  ecclesiastical  cen- 
sures, and  received  him  "  as  bishop,  as  brother,  as  colleague,"  under 
some  conditions,  however,  which  were  artfully  evaded.  A  Byzantine 
synod,  attended  by  Roman  legates,  confirmed  the  proceeding.1 

The  triumph  of  Photius  was  complete ;  and  though  the  successors 
of  John  showed  an  inclination  to  renew  hostilities,  he  was  not  much 
molested  till  the  accession  of  Leo  in  886,  whose  education  he  had 
directed,  and  to  whom  he  was  probably  indebted  for  the  imposing 
name  of  philosopher.  He  was  banished  a  second  time,  under  the 
imputation  of  many  crimes  ;  but  rather,  we  may  be  allowed  to  think, 
in  order  that  the  path  to  the  patriarchal  chair,  to  which  Leo  destined 
his  own  brother  Stephen,  might  not  be  obstructed  by  the  presence  of 
the  lawful  possessor.  It  is  not  certain  how  long  Photius  survived 
this  last  blow ;  but  it  should  seem,  till  about  the  year  891. 

Of  the  thirty  years  which  had  thus  passed  since  his  first  promo- 
tion to  ecclesiastical  dignities,  those  of  repose  which  he  experienced 
in  his  exile  must  have  proved  most  grateful  to  Photius,  had  his  mind, 
devoted  as  it  was  to  study,  been  less  attached  to  the  scene  of  pre- 
eminence in  which  he  found  so  little  tranquillity.  In  this  dignified 
station,  indeed,  there  was  room  for  the  exercise  of  talents,  whether 
in  the  intrigues  of  negotiation,  in  the  management  of  resources,  or  in 
the  display  of  erudition.  It  is,  however,  not  unentertaining  to  listen 
to  his  own  statement,  in  a  letter  to  pope  Nicolas,2  early  in  the  con- 
troversy, than  which  nothing  was  ever  composed  more  distinguished 
by  its  elegance  or  its  art.  In  the  most  pleasing  colours,  and  with 
much  feeling,  he  describes  the  tranquil  scenes  from  which  he  had 
been  forcibly  torn,  where  he  was  surrounded  by  admiring  friends, 
when  it  was  his  dearest  occupation  to  watch  the  labours  of  his 
scholars,  to  answer  their  questions,  and  to  contemplate  their  profi- 
ciency. Some  were  intent  on  mathematical  solutions  ;  others  dis- 
covered the  track  of  truth  by  logical  deductions ;  others  were  engaged 
in  the  more  sublime  study  of  the  heavenly  oracles,  by  which  the 
mind  might  be  disciplined  in  piety.  "  Such,"  says  he,  "  was  my  so- 
ciety ;  with  such  companions  was  my  house  crowded :  but  what  a 
change !  I  reflect  with  anguish  on  what  is  passed  ;  and  my  eyes  fill 

1  See  Baronius,  Annal.  Sac.  ix. ;  also  Fleury,  Hist.  Eccles.  xi.  in  4to. 

2  Ap.  Baron,  ad  an.  859. 


PHOTIUS.  369 


with  tears ;  for,  even  before  experience  had  taught  the  lesson,  I  well 
knew  what  cares,  what  solicitudes,  what  tumults,  environed  the 
patriarchal  chair." 

But  he  seems  on  no  occasion  more  consciously  to  have  felt  the 
superiority  of  his  powers,  than  when  he  stood  in  silent  dignity  in  the 
public  synod,  heedless  of  the  accumulated  insults  with  which  he  was 
assailed.  His  contemporaries  allow  him  the  praise  of  immense  learn- 
ing, but  deny  him  virtue ;  modern  writers  say  less  of  his  moral 
character,  as  if  sensible  of  its  defects,  and  dwell  on  the  uncommon 
splendour  of  his  intellectual  attainments.  Look,  they  say,  at  his 
work,  entitled  the  Library,  which  is  a  lasting  monument  of  erudition ; 
and  you  will  at  once  discover  the  profound  historian,  the  learned 
philologist,  the  acute  critic.  The  answers  which  he  returned  to  the 
many  difficulties  which  were  proposed  at  various  times,  prove  him  to 
have  been  deeply  read  in  the  jurisprudence  of  the  empire;  and  his 
political  sagacity  is  manifested  in  his  Treatise  on  the  Duty  of  a 
He  who  peruses  his  Letters  will  be  convinced  that  he  pos- 
sessed whatever  was  most  valuable  in  philosophy,  the  mathematics, 
medicine,  and  theology.  A  writer,'  who  was  not  well-affected  to 
the  patriarch,  candidly  allows  that  in  him  were  combined  all  the 
requisites  of  literary  eminence  — "  a  natural  aptness,  energy,  and 
ehcity  of  talents,  application,  wealth,  which  furnished  the  means  of 
procuring  books,  and  more  than  all,  an  insatiable  thirst  of  fame,  to 
gratify  which  his  nights  were  not  unfrequently  devoted  to  study." 

Photius  composed  his  MyriobiUm  or  Library  at  the  request  of  his 
brother  Tarasius,  whilst  he  was  a  layman,  and  as  it  seems  during  an 
embassy  at  the  court  of  Bagdat.  In  the  perusal  of  this  work,  the 
learned  are  at  a  loss  which  most  to  admire,  the  acuteness  of  his  per- 
ception, the  solidity  of  his  judgment,  the  constancy  of  his  diligence,  or 
the  variety  of  his  reading.  Tarasius  had  begged  an  account  of  the 
books  which  he  had  read.  Photius  enumerates  and  reviews  those  to 
the  number  of  two  hundred  and  eighty,  theologians,  commentators, 
philosophers,  historians,  orators,  physicians,  and  grammarians — with- 
out any  regular  method,  as  his  memory,  or  the  association  of  the 
moment,  seems  to  have  presented  to  his  mind.  Of  the  authors  them- 
selves he  gives  some  account ;  states  the  argument,  the  design,  and 
the  general  contents  of  each  work ;  appreciates  the  style  and  cha- 
racter, and  exhibits,  in  extracts  more  or  less  full,  such  passages  as 
merited  peculiar  notice.  The  judgment  which  he  pronounces  is 
always  free,  candid,  and  evincing  great  knowledge  of  the  subject, 
though  it  has  sometimes  been  thought  too  severe.  There  is  cer- 
tainly a  want  of  order;  and  as  he  advances,  the  plan  of  his  work  be- 
comes so  far  varied,  as  in  some  scholars  to  have  excited  a  suspicion 
that  the  whole  is  not  from  the  pen  of  Photius.  In  the  beginning  of 
s  review,  he  generally  sets  down  in  a  few  words  the  argument  of 
the  work,  and  states  his  opinion  ;  but  a  fuller  account  is  soon  given, 


1  Nicetas,  in  Vita  Ign.  Cone.  v. 

B  B 


370         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

and  as  he  draws  towards  the  end,  his  extracts  become  much  more 
copious.  But,  as  the  work  proceeds,  his  exactness  is  visibly  dimi- 
nished ;  or  rather,  as  his  hand  labours,  his  mind  seeks  repose,  still 
transcribing  with  faithfulness,  but  producing  little  which  can  be 
called  his  own. 

From  the  omission  of  the  works  of  many  authors,'  which  he  had 
certainly  read,  the  opinion  seems  probable,  that  the  Library  is  only 
a  part  of  a  larger  compilation,  which  Photius  had,  at  some  other  time, 
executed,  or,  at  least,  projected.  In  its  present  state,  however,  it  is 
a  rich  treasure,  including  what  is  most  curious  in  many  sciences  ; 
rescuing  from  oblivion  the  memory  of  authors  whose  writings  have 
•wholly  or  in  part  perished ;  and  of  these  preserving  fragments  which 
can  nowhere  else  be  found.  Let  me  also  remark,  that  it  is  the  model 
on  which  the  critical  journals  have  been  formed,  which,  in  modern 
times,  and  in  all  languages,  have  contributed  so  much  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  literature  and  to  the  diffusion  of  taste. 

In  turning  over  the  list  of  writers  who  had  engaged  the  attention 
of  Photius,1  we  see,  with  regret,  how  many  of  the  two  hundred  and 
eighty — and  those,  in  many  respects,  the  most  valuable — have  been 
utterly  lost,  or  exist  only  in  the  extracts  of  their  works,  which  he 
fortunately  made.  For  that  loss  it  is  not  easy  to  account,  as  the 
Greeks  still  continued  to  be  a  studious  and  learned  people ;  unless 
we  may  be  allowed  to  think  that,  as  the  Library  of  Photius,  like 
many  modern  compilations,  afforded  to  the  indolent  an  easy  means 
of  acquiring  knowledge,  they  neglected  the  task  of  more  laborious 
reading.  From  the  character  of  some  works,  which  have  come 
down  to  us  more  entire — though  everything  seems  to  have  been  read 
by  Photius — it  may,  I  think,  be  truly  said,  that  the  copyists  among 
the  Greeks  were  not,  at  all  tunes,  more  profitably  employed  than 
among  the  Latins.  ^ 

Besides  the  Library,  Photius  left  other  works,  which  the  learned 
peruse  with  pleasure,  particularly  his  Nomocanon,  or  a  collection  of 
the  ecclesiastical  and  imperial  laws,  digested  and  methodised  with 
admirable  precision ;  and  his  Epistles,  in  number  two  hundred  and 
fifty,  written  on  different  occasions  and  to  various  persons.  These, 
in  proportion  as  the  subject  allowed,  evince  the  delicacy  of  his  taste, 
the  sprightliness  of  his  wit,  the  depth  of  his  learning,  the  versatility 
of  his  talents,  and  the  strength  of  his  understanding.  As  he  was 
raised  from  a  layman  to  the  patriarchal  chair,  it  might  have  been 
suspected  that  he  was  deficient  in  that  knowledge  which  was  befit- 
ting the  station  ;  but  it  is  plain  there  was  no  such  deficiency  ;  which 
proves,  either  that  he  had  the  station  always  in  view,  or  that  the 
taste  of  the  age  had  induced  him  to  combine  theological  learning 
with  his  other  attainments.  He  is  thought  to  have  had  no  relish  for 
poetry,  from  his  silence  upon  that  subject,  but  from  the  character 
drawn  of  him  by  a  contemporary  writer,2  it  seems  that  that  pleasing 

1  See  the  Bib.  G.  v.  38,  ix.  -  Nicetas,  in  Vit.  Ignat. 


TO  1453.]  LEO  THE  WISE.  371 

art,  with  every  branch  of  polite  literature,  had  equally  engaged  his 
attention.1 

The  time  in  which  Photius  lived,  out  of  compliment  to  his  talents, 
or  perhaps  from  the  tierce  controversy  which  he  occasioned,  has  been 
denominated  the  Photian  age ;  and  we  may  presume  that  his  example, 
and  the  instructions  which  he  freely  communicated,  though  few 
names  are  recorded,  must  have  excited  in  many  the  ardour  of  literary 
emulation.  The  closing  years  of  the  ninth  century  then  were  an 
auspicious  era ;  and  better  days  seemed  hastening  to  return. 

Basil  reigned  with  justice:  his  understanding  was  vigorous,  his 
views  moderate,  and  the  civil  administration  of  the  finances  and  of 
the  laws  admirable.  Men  forgot  the  atrocious  act  which  had  raised 
him  to  the  throne.  When  the  treasury  was  replenished,  the  money 
which  could  be  spared  from  more  important  exigencies  was  ex- 
pended on  the  embellishment  of  the  capital  and  provinces,  and  in 
repairing,  ornamenting,  or  erecting  churches.  As  the  laws  had  been 
neglected,  a  revision  of  the  jurisprudence  of  Justinian,  in  all  its 
parts,  became  necessar}-,  and  a  plan  was  digested,  which  his  son  and 
grandson  improved  and  completed,  under  the  title  of  Basilics.  Basil 
not  learned,  but  he  knew  the  value  of  learning;  and  when  he 
was  reconciled  to  Photius,  he  entrusted  him  with  the  education  of 
his  sons. 

Of  these  sons,  Leo,  who  has  been  dignified  with  the  title  of  Philo- 
sopher, or  the  Wise,  inherited  the  throne.  From  what  incidents  of 
his  reign,  or  from  what  proficiency  in  wisdom  he  merited  the  appel- 
lation, could  not  easily  be  ascertained,  did  we  not  know  upon  what 
slight  grounds,  or  for  what  unsatisfactory  reasons,  such  distinctions 
are  often  conferred  upon  princes.  Historians,  indeed,  are  sufficiently 
lavish  in  his  praise :  they  represent  him  as  an  admirer  of  every  kind 
of  science,  "  and  of  that  secret  learning  which,  from  incantation, 
divines  future  events."  They  say  also,  that  he  was  versed  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  motion  of  the  stars,  and  of  their  influence.-  Such 
W:H  his  philosophy.  Oracular  predictions,  moreover,  were  ascribed 
to  him,  which,  in  the  style  of  prophecy,  revealed  the  fates  of  the 
Bvzantine  empire.  The  works  edited,  and  unedited,  which  were 
written  by  him  or  in  his  name,  form  a  miscellaneous  mass  of  orations, 
sermon*,  epigram,  moral  precepts,  riddles  or  mystical  sayings,  con- 
stitutions, and  tactics ;  among  which  his  Nuumachica  make  a  princi- 
pal figure.5  An  emperor  who  was  thus  prodigal  of  his  pen,  and 
M  sermons  were  adapted  to  many  festivals  of  the  year,  might 
readily  be  honoured  with  the  name  of  wise.  But  it  is  admitted  that 
Leo  was  a  zealous  protector  of  learning ;  and  it  is  enough  if  princes 
b<-  taught  to  aspire  t<>  this  species  of  praise.  lie  saw  eleven  years  of 
the  ensuing  centurv. 

1  On  the   writings   of  Photius  and  bis  character,  see  Cave,  Hist.  Liter. 
Dupin,  Bib.  Eccles.  Brucker,  Hist.  Phil,  iii.,  and  particulurly  the  Bib.  G.  ix! 

-  Annul.  Scrip.  Zonaras,  Cedrenus,  &c. 

2  See  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.   Baronius,  sub  an.  911.    Brucker,  iii.    Bib.  (J.  vi. 

BB  2 


372         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

Constantine  Porphyrogenitus,  the  son  of  Leo,  ascended  the  throne 
after  many  years  of  minority  and  dependence.  Of  a  studious  tem- 
per and  a  retired  turn  of  mind,  he  had  dedicated  much  of  his  time  to 
the  pursuits  of  science  and  the  liberal  arts.  His  character  is  thus 
favourably  delineated:1  "In  the  service  of  God  he  was  pious  ;  and 
his  attachment  to  letters  is  attested  by  his  various  writings,  not 
polished,  indeed,  agreeably  to  the  rules  of  oratorical  composition, 
but  still  abounding  in  many  beauties.  The  elegy  which  he  wrote 
on  the  death  of  his  mother,  proves  that  he  had  not  neglected  the 
art  of  versification.  Philosophy  also,  which  had  been  little  followed, 
engaged  his  attention  ;  and  by  the  appointment  of  proper  teachers, 
he  gave  a  new  life  to  the  general  cause  of  science."  But  history 
was  his  most  favourite  pursuit ;  whilst  he  could  amuse  the  solitary 
hours  of  adversity  with  painting,  and  in  giving  encouragement  to 
the  mechanical  arts.  His  desire  to  reanimate  the  intellectual  vigour 
of  the  Greeks,  which  had  become  torpid  by  disuse,  merits  the  highest 
praise ;  and  the  measures  which  he  employed  were  well  adapted 
to  the  end  which  he  proposed.  He  drew  many  learned  men  to  his 
court ;  caused  diligent  search  to  be  made  for  the  writings  of  such 
ancient  authors  as,  notwithstanding  the  recent  labours  of  Photius, 
were  in  danger  of  being  lost.  He  himself  became  an  author,  and 
with  filial  reverence  wrote  the  Life  of  his  grandfather  Basil,  in 
which  he  delineated  what  seemed  to  him  a  perfect  image  of  royalty. 
Where  protection  and  rewards  would  not  suffice,  he  hoped  by  his 
own  example  to  secure  to  letters  a  more  general  contribution  of 
talents.  For  the  benefit  and  satisfaction  of  the  curious,  he  employed 
persons  to  make  extracts  from  such  works  as  were  most  rare,  which 
extracts  were  exposed  to  public  inspection. 

The  sources  from  which  this  compilation  was  formed  were  chiefly 
historical,  and  the  extracts  regarded  government  and  morality,  dis- 
tributed under  fifty-three  heads.  Of  these  only  two  are  now  extant.  In 
the  preface  it  is  observed,2  that  Constantine,  whose  mind  was  open  to 
whatever  was  beautiful,  and  who  executed  with  facility  whatever  he 
conceived,  sensible  of  the  advantage  of  his  plan  to  the  public,  directed 
the  most  eminent  works  to  be  collected ;  but  at  the  same  time,  aware 
how  operose  their  perusal  would  be  to  many,  he  ordered  a  selection 
of  passages  to  be  made.  He  thought  that  more  attention  would 
thus  be  gained,  and  the  mind  be  more  strongly  impressed.  It  is 
added,  that  whatever  in  the  whole  range  of  history  can  be  deemed 
most  important  has  found  a  place  in  the  work  ;  nor  is  the  order  of 
things  disturbed,  as  their  just  distribution,  under  proper  heads, 
presents  them  in  a  more  united  view.  But  it  has  been  lamented,  as 
I  observed  of  the  library  of  Photius,  that,  as  by  this  measure  a 
superficial  knowledge  could  be  procured  without  labour,  indolence 
was  encouraged,  and  the  real  sources  themselves  so  much  neglected, 
that  many  valuable  works,  ceasing  to  be  read,  were  utterly  lost. 

1  Zonar   Annal.  iii.  2  See  Bib.  G.  v.  5,  vi. 


TO  1453.]  CONSTANTINE  PORPHYROGENITUS.  373 

In  the  first  embassy  to  Constantinople,  which  was  undertaken  by 
Liutprand,  afterwards  bishop  of  Cremona,  in  the  year  946,  on  which 
he  was  sent  by  the  Italian  king  Berengarius,  some  account  is  given 
by  himself, »  of  what  he  saw  in  the  imperial  city,  and  of  his  inter- 
views with  Constantine.  But  nothing  can  be  less  interesting  ;  and 
to  judge  from  the  puerile  objects  which  were  exhibited,  I  am  induced 
to  believe,  that  this  ambassador  appeared  to  the  Greeks  as  no  better 
than  a  barbarian,  who  was  to  be  entertained  by  his  senses  rather  than 
his  mind.  He  is  utterly  silent  on  literature  ;  nor  was  it  mentioned 
to  him  by  the  emperor,  whose  favourite  object  it  was.  Liutprand, 
indeed,  knew  little  of  the  language  ;  but  he  highly  valued  his  own 
talents,  and  he  hesitates  not  to  relate  what  was  said  of  him  by 
Berengarius  when  he  appointed  him  to  the  office  :  "  He  who  almost 
in  his  cradle  made  so  easy  a  conquest  of  the  Latin  tongue,  will  soon 
master  that  of  Greece."  We  will  return  to  Liutprand  on  his 
second  embassy. 

Neither  the  studies  of  Constantine,  to  indulge  which  he  has  been 
accused  of  neglecting  the  important  cares  of  the  empire,  nor  his 
solicitude  for  the  literary  improvement  of  his  subjects,  were  crowned 
with  much  success.  To  instruct  his  son  Romanus  in  the  practice  of 
government,  he  wrote  a  Treatise  on  its  theory  •  which  was  followed 
by  the  Themata,  a  work  of  high  importance,  which  is  still  extant 
In  this  the  provinces  of  the  empire  are  described,  as  it  was  then 
distributed  ;  whilst  it  gives  an  account  of  the  various  people,  their 
origin  and  antiquities.  In  the  former  work  he  had  spoken  of  other 
nations,  of  their  manners,  institutions,  and  military  strength ;  and 
how  they  might  be  able  as  allies  to  assist,  or  as  enemies  to  annoy,  the 
state.  ISTor  were  his  views  for  the  prosperity  of  this  state  as  yet 
completed.  He  therefore  directed  two  other  works  to  be  compiled, 
one  on  the  Veterinary  art,  comprising  what  had  hitherto  been 
published  most  excellent  on  the  subject ;  the  other  on  Agriculture^ 
formed  on  a  similar  plan.2  Such  were  the  laudable  labours  of  Con- 
stantine :  but  the  age  itself  did  little.  No  names  of  philosophical 
writers  are  recorded,  though  attention  was  excited  by  some  rhetori- 
cians and  grammarians ;  a  few  poets  were  above  contempt ;  and 
historians  may  be  found  on  the  Byzantine  list  not  totally  void  of 
merit :  for,  he  who  preserves  facts  from  oblivion  must  ever  be  en- 
titled to  praise. 

Some  may  doubt  whether  Simeon,  distinguished  by  the  name  of 

etaphrastes,  be  entitled  to  this  praise  :  but  his  work  at  least  shows 

the  subjects  by  which  the  attention  of  the  most  learned  was  then 

engaged.    Simeon  was  born  of  noble  parents,  endowed  with  superior 

talents,  imbued  with  the  precepts  of  elegant  literature,  and  advanced, 

t  by  Leo,  and  then  by  Constantine,  to  the  highest  offices  in  the 

state.     Instigated  by  the  admonitions  of  an  anchorite,   whom  he 

1  Lintprand.  Hist.  vi.  Inter.  Rer.  Itol.  Scrip,  ii. 
-  Bib.  o.  ut  ante. 


374         OP  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

accidentally  met,  he  undertook  to  write  the  Life  of  a  Grecian  saint, 
Theoctista ;  and  afterwards,  in  the  intervals  of  business,  having  by 
the  command  of  his  master  Constantine  extended  his  plan  of  hagio- 
graphy,  he  pursued  it  into  the  remoter  periods  of  church  history. 
He  carefully  collected  the  lives  which  had  been  compiled,  some  of 
which  he  revised,  whilst  he  retained  and  published  in  their  original 
state  those  which  for  their  elegance  deserved  to  be  read.  "Where 
elegance  was  wanting,  he  had  recourse  to  his  own  pen,  digesting, 
amending,  polishing,  as  it  seemed  best ;  and  it  is  said,  sometimes  when 
the  materials  were  scanty,  supplying  the  deficiency  from  the  stores 
of  his  own  imagination.  A  volume  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-two 
Lives  was  thus  formed :  a  work,  in  point  of  style,  not  disgraceful 
to  a  scholar,  but  which  has  more  the  appearance  of  a  panegyric 
than  of  a  history.  But  he  cannot  be  deemed  responsible  for  the 
many  spurious  and  faithless  legends  which  other  writers,  availing 
themselves  of  the  fame  of  Metaphrastes,  afterwards  added  to  his  com- 
pilation. Some  other  religious  Tracts  of  Metaphrastes  are  extant, 
as  likewise  Annals  of  History.1 

It  must  be  owned,  that  the  Lexicon  of  Suidas — who  is  thought  by 
some  to  have  lived  in  this  century — is  much  more  valuable  to  scholars. 
It  is  a  work,  partly  historical,  partly  explanatory,  or,  as  it  has  been 
sometimes  styled,  a  treasure  of  various  knowledge ;  in  which,  besides 
the  explanation  of  many  curious  terms,  an  account  is  given,  as  in  the 
Library  of  Photius,  of  historians,  poets,  orators,  and  other  writers, 
with  copious  extracts  from  their  works.  And  as  many  of  these 
writings  are  no  longer  extant,  I  need  not  repeat,  that  this  circum- 
stance greatly  enhances  the  merit  of  the  Lexicon.  But  the  critics 
complain,  and  not  without  reason,  of  negligence  and  omissions,  and 
a  visible  want  of  patient  research,  if  not  of  judicious  discrimination, 
in  the  choice  and  arrangement  of  the  complicated  materials.2  But  it 
cannot  excite  surprise  that  when  taste  had  vanished,  the  qualities 
which  attend  it  should  also  have  disappeared.  Indeed,  the  very 
character  of  compilations,  such  as  the  Lexicon  of  Suidas,  the  Library 
of  Photius,  and  many  similar  works  in  our  days — though  we  must 
be  thankful,  in  regard  to  the  former,  for  what  they  have  saved  from 
the  general  wreck — appears  to  my  mind  to  evince  the  decay  of  litera- 
ture. "While  letters  really  flourish,  men  draw  more  from  the  stores 
of  their  own  intellects,  and  original  works  are  produced.  When 
intellect  is  enfeebled,  and  genius  no  longer  exists,  they  have  re- 
course to  compilations,  and  live,  as  it  were,  upon  the  labours  of  their 
predecessors 

The  work  entitled  Etymologicon  Magnum  has  been  ascribed  to 
the  same  Suidas,  but  without  sufficient  authority,  though  it  may 
have  been  composed  in  the  same  period  with  the  Lexicon.  The 
Etymologicon  Magnum  is  a  work  of  great  utility  to  the  Greek 

1  See  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  Dupin,  Bib.  Eccles.  Bib.  G.  vi. 
•  Bib.  G.  v.  40,  ix. 


TO  1453.]  BASIL  ii.  375 

student,  and  a  rich  repository  of  observations  on  the  grammar  and 
etymology  of  the  language.  Much  fanciful  conjecture  may  be  dis- 
covered under  the  last  head  : '  but  the  work  itself  proves  how  atten- 
tive the  Greeks  were,  even  at  this  period,  to  preserve  the  purity  of 
their  admired  tongue. 

As  associated  with  the  subjects  of  the  Library  of  Photius  and  the 
Lexicon  of  Suidas,  I  may  here  introduce  Stobaeus,  who  was  doubtless 
an  author  of  a  more  early  age,  as  he  is  mentioned  by  Photius  ;  but 
of  whom  I  have  hitherto  omitted  to  speak.  Indeed,  it  is  not  known 
who  he  was,  or  when  he  flourished.  The  value,  however,  of  his 
work,  has  given  celebrity  to  the  name  of  Stobaeus.  It  is  an  Antho- 
logy in  four  books,  containing  extracts  on  the  various  points  of  moral 
and  natural  philosophy,  from  nearly  five  hundred  poets  and  prose 
writers.2  Hence,  though  the  work  is  imperfect,  what  remains  is  of 
considerable  value.  While  it  preserves  the  fragments,  it  shows  what 
were  the  doctrines  of  various  sages,  when  entire  works  are  lost,  on 
many  interesting  topics.  It  shows,  moreover,  how  learned  and  how 
laborious  the  Greeks  at  all  times  were;  compelling  us  to  admire 
their  intellectual  fecundity,  and,  in  contemplating  the  comparatively 
few  surviving  relics,  to  lament  the  indolence  of  copyists,  the  devasta- 
tions of  barbarism,  and  the  ravages  of  time.  I  shall  soon  have  ano- 
ther occasion  of  speaking  of  Athenaeus. 

Constantino  Porphyrogenitus  died  in  959 ;  and  we  in  vain  look 
among  his  successors,  the  lawful  inheritors  or  the  usurpers  of  the 
throne,  for  a  prince  who  was  himself  studious  of  the  praise  of 
learning,  or  disposed  to  encourage  the  pursuit.  Of  Basil  II.,  one  of 
the  grandsons  of  Constantine,  whose  reign  was  extended  beyond  the 
century,  it  is  related,3  "  That  he  held  men  of  science  in  no  estimation, 
viewing  learning  itself  as  useless  and  unprofitable  lumber.  In  his 
choice  of  ministers  and  secretaries  he  had  no  regard  to  birth  or 
talents,  and  his  despatches  were  dictated  in  the  first  words  which 
offered,  without  any  attention  to  style."  A  vicious  education,  which 
could  not  subdue  his  spirit,  had  clouded  his  mind  ;  and  the  recollec- 
tion of  his  learned  but  feeble  grandsire — often  repeated  by  the 
tongues  of  flatterers — might  have  encouraged  a  real  or  affected  con- 
tempt of  learning  and  the  arts. 

In  the  reign  of  Nicephorus  Phocas,  between  the  years  963  and 
969,  Liutprand  was,  a  second  time,  despatched  to  the  Byzantine 
court  by  the  western  emperor  Otho.  As  the  first  journey  was  void 
<>f  interesting  information,  I  had  hoped  that  the  second  would  be 
more  successful ;  when  we  might  presume  that  the  ambassador,  better 
skilled  in  the  language,  would  be  curious  to  contemplate  the  state  of 
Grecian  literature,  to  compare  it  with  that  of  the  West,  and  to 
enrich  his  journal  with  valuable  observations.  But  not  a  word  appears 
upon  this  subject,  though  he  has  himself  furnished  a  detailed  account 

Hfc  <:.  v.  40,  x.  a  See  Bib.  v.  30,  viii 

3  /onar.  Annul,  iii. 


376         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

of  occurrences.1  His  reception  and  treatment  at  Constantinople 
were  highly  contumelious ;  and  in  the  various  interviews  with 
Nicephorus,  his  courtiers,  and  others,  it  is  not  easy  to  determine 
which  merit  reprehension  most,  the  insulting  reflections  and  buf- 
foonery of  the  Greeks,  or  the  petulant  replies  of  the  ambassador. 
The  portrait  which  he  draws  of  the  emperor,  is  that  of  the  most 
filthy  monster  ;  nor  is  his  description  of  the  Grecian  manners,  their 
dress,  their  feasts,  their  processions,  their  amusements,  in  any  respect, 
more  inviting.  His  pencil  is  ever  laden  with  dirt ;  and  the  hand 
which  holds  it  is  evidently  hurried  on  by  the  stimulus  of  irritation 
and  resentment.  During  a  residence  of  more  than  a  hundred  days 
among  the  most  learned  and  polite  people,  the  barbarian  bishop  of 
Cremona  could  discover  nothing  which  did  not  provoke  his  censure 
or  his  contempt.  And  when  at  length  he  obtained  permission  to 
return,  he  takes  his  leave  of  the  imperial  city,  with  the  following 
selection  of  epithets  :  "  That  city,"  says  he,  "  once  so  wealthy,  once 
so  flourishing ;  but  now  famished,  perjured,  lying,  deceitful,  rapa- 
cious, greedy,  niggardly,  vainglorious."  Then,  in  his  own  elegant 
Latin,  he  adds,  "  After  a  journey  of  fifty  days,  asinando,  ambulando, 
equitando,  jejunandoi  i>itiendo,  suspirando,  flendo,  gemendo,  I  reached 
Naupactus." 

If  the  reader  be  at  all  acquainted  with  the  tissue  of  Byzantine 
history,  and  particularly  with  the  characters  of  the  princes  who  filled 
the  throne,  he  will  be  sensible  that  literature  had  little  to  expect ; 
and  if,  in  some  more  auspicious  moments,  a  few  men  of  extraordinary 
learning  shall  appear,  he  will  view  them  as  he  does  some  rare  phe- 
nomena, or  some  extraordinary  occurrences.  The  power  of  the 
empire  was  daily  diminished  by  the  attacks  of  foreign  enemies, 
whilst  it  was  consumed  by  internal  discord,  seditious  conspiracies, 
and  violent  revolutions,  which  shook  the  imperial  throne,  and  were 
attended  by  the  sudden  fall  and  elevation  of  succeeding  competitors 
for  the  sovereignty.  From  the  death  of  Constantine  X.  in  1028, 
who,  with  his  brother  Basil,  had  enjoyed  the  title  of  Augustus  more 
than  threescore  years,  a  disgraceful  period  of  twenty-eight  years 
ensued,  during  which  the  Greeks,  degraded  below  the  common 
level  of  servitude,  were  transferred,  like  a  herd  of  cattle,  by  the 
choice  or  caprice  of  two  contemptible  females,  the  daughters  of  that 
Constantine.  Such  events,  attended,  as  usual,  by  intestine  commo- 
tions, while  they  deprived  the  political  body  of  strength  and  con- 
sistence, broke  in  upon  the  public  order,  rendered  all  things  pre- 
carious, and,  dejecting  the  spirits  of  the  nation,  damped  the  fire  of 
genius,  and  discouraged  the  efforts  of  literary  ambition.2 

The  Macedonian  or  Basilian  dynasty  expired  with  Theodora ;  and 
the  Comnenian  succeeded  in  the  person  of  Isaac  Comnenus  in  1057. 
But  after  a  little  more  than  two  years,  he  retired  to  a  monastery, 

1  Legatio  Liutpr.  ad  Nic.  Phocam,  inter.  Rer.  Ital.  Scrip,  ii. 

2  Mosheim,  Eccles.  Hist.  ii.  xi. 


TO  1453.]      DECLINE  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.  377 

with  the  reputation,  "  not,  indeed,  of  learning,  but  of  being  studious 
of  letters,  and  fond  of  learned  society."  l  The  four  immediate  suc- 
cessors of  Isaac  were  not  of  the  Comnenian  family  ;  amongst  whom 
Constantine  Ducas  is  represented  as  a  prince  destitute  of  talents,  but 
devoted  to  virtuous  pursuits  ;  who,  when  glowing  \vith  admiration 
of  the  successful  efforts  of  some  learned  men,  was  heard  to  say, 
"  that,  in  his  estimation,  the  crown  of  science  was  preferable  to  the 
crown  of  empire."  -  This  distinction,  his  son  Michael  VII.,  a  con- 
temptible and  weak  prince,  flattered  himself  that  he  might  be  worthy 
to  obtain,  by  frequenting  the  school  of  the  great  philosopher  Psellus. 
"  Here,"  says  the  historian,3  "  occupied  in  puerile  exercises,  he  pro- 
ceeded on  to  the  study  of  letters ;  sometimes  engaged  in  the  rules  of 
grammar,  in  the  construction  of  verses,  and  the  comparison  of 
idioms ;  at  other  times  exercised  in  rhetorical  declamation,  and  in 
the  art  of  writing  history ;  and  sometimes  solemnly  prepared  to 
attend  the  moral  lectures  of  philosophy.  But  he  was  utterly  inca- 
pable of  any  acquirements ;  and  while  the  imperial  scholar  thus 
wasted  his  time,  the  state  was  neglected,  the  people  oppressed,  and 
the  provinces  invaded."  When  a  rival  advanced,  the  feeble  emperor, 
without  much  reluctance,  resigned  the  ensigns  of  royalty  and  became 
a  monk. 

Letters  could  not  be  expected  to  flourish  under  such  weak  and 
degrading  patronage ;  or  amidst  the  tumultuous  changes  and  inces- 
sant troubles  which  surrounded  the  throne  and  disturbed  the  govern- 
ment. The  condition  of  the  western  empire,  in  the  periods  of  its 
most  rapid  decline,  was  at  no  time  more  awfully  calamitous  than  now 
was,  and  had  been,  that  of  the  falling  Byzantium.  Some  of  the 
princes,  indeed,  could  exhibit  many  years  of  their  reigns  which  were 
marked  by  an  equal  series  of  disasters ;  whilst  the  sceptre  was  torn 
from  the  hands  of  others  by  murder,  by  privation  of  sight,  or,  when 
mercy  had  more  influence,  by  consignment  to  the  seclusion  of  a 
convent.4 

In  the  convents  of  the  East,  which  were  even  more  numerous  than 
those  of  the  West,  and  where  fallen  ambition  might  find  repose — 
would  be  found,  among  the  indolent  and  the  sincerely  pious,  many 
men  of  various  literary  tastes,  who  had  been  disgusted  by  the  out- 
rage and  violence  of  the  times,  or  had  been  allured  by  the  prospect 
of  literary  leisure  and  the  opportunities  of  books  and  masters.  Pla- 
tonism  had  taken  refuge  in  these  asylums ;  and  here  the  wildest 
theories,  which  are  so  accordant  with  the  Asiatic  taste,  found  their 
appropriate  nutriment.  Such  pursuits  might  or  might  not  be  inno- 
cuous :  but  from  the  multitudes  of  men  of  all  habits  and  characters 
with  which  the  cloisters  were  thronged,  it  is  related,  that  not  only 
theological  controversies  were  here  assiduously  fostered,  but  many 
civil  feuds  were  encouraged  which  helped  to  distract  the  empire. 

1  Zonaras,  Anna!,  iii.  2  Ibid.  3  Ibid. 

*  On  these  times,  see  the  Annal.  Scrip.  Cedrenus,  Zonaras,  &c. 


378         OP  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

Still  learning  had  many  votaries,  whose  ranks  continued  to  furnish 
the  able  ministers  who  graced  the  episcopal  sees  of  the  Eastern 
church.  Xiphilinus,  says  the  historian,1  "  at  this  time  raised  to  the 
Byzantine  chair,  was  versed  in  all  the  branches  of  learning  ;  and  he 
had  filled  an  important  seat  in  the  senate.  This  he  voluntarily 
relinquished,  and,  shaving  his  head,  embraced  a  life  of  solitude  among 
the  monasteries  of  Mount  Olympus ;  when,  after  many  years,  he 
was  deemed  worthy  of  the  patriarchal  dignity."  Before  him,  the 
same  post  of  pre-eminence  had  been  in  the  hands  of  Michael  Ceru- 
lerius,  a  prelate  of  great  erudition,  but  who  bore  too  close  a  resem- 
blance to  his  predecessor  Photius,  and  who,  like  him,  from  the  love 
of  strife  or  the  restlessness  of  unworthy  ambition,  without  provoca- 
tion renewed  the  contest  with  the  Western  church,  on  points  of 
comparatively  little  moment. 

I  mentioned  the  philosopher  Psellus,  the  master  of  Michael  VH., 
who  is  acknowledged  to  have  been  the  literary  ornament  of  the  age, 
and  generally  styled  the  "  Prince  of  Philosophers."  He  was  a  native 
of  Constantinople,  descended  from  an  ancient  patrician  family,  em- 
ployed in  high  stations  by  many  successive  princes,  who  often  con- 
sulted him  on  the  intrigues  of  the  court  and  the  arduous  concerns 
of  state.  After  the  death  of  his  pupil,  however,  or  rather  after  his 
abdication,  he  experienced  the  common  fate  of  courtiers,  was  stripped 
of  all  his  honours,  and  condemned  to  a  cell. 

A  profound  critic  -  observes,  that  he  who  reads  the  works  of 
Michael  Psellus,  which  are  replete  with  science,  enriched  by  a  co- 
pious diction,  by  acuteness  of  invention,  and  by  depth  of  learning, 
will  not  hesitate  to  pronounce,  that,  as  he  surpassed  his  contempo- 
raries in  the  multiplicity  of  his  works,  he  rose  above  them  in  every 
attainment.  He  adds,  that  Nature,  in  order  to  exhibit  what  her  real 
powers  were,  seems  to  have  formed  him  in  the  declining  state  of 
Grecian  literature.  We  have  a  description  3  of  its  low  condition  and 
succeeding  progress  when  he  first  entered  the  schools  and  rose  into 
eminence.  "  From  the  time  of  the  first  Basil,  the  best  studies  had 
been  neglected,  but  not  wholly  extinguished.  They  afterwards 
revived,  excited  by  the  zeal  of  many  able  men  who  then  came  for- 
ward. These  men — despising  the  idle  discipline  which  had  occupied 
their  predecessors  in  vain  and  frivolous  pursuits,  by  which  the  cause 
of  real  learning  and  elegant  letters  had  been  brought  into  contempt 
— resolutely  seized  the  proper  method  of  receiving  and  imparting 
instruction.  When  John,  called  the  Italian,  arrived  at  Byzantium, 
the  former  torpor  being  shaken  off,  many,  with  wonderful  ardour, 
engaged  in  the  literary  career.  Public  disputations  became  fashion- 
able ;  and  as  he  learned  the  art  of  logic,  John  was  daily  seen  vigor- 
ously engaged  with  these  sophists,  who  were  fond  of  contention, 

1  Zonar.  Ann.  iii. — Xiphilinus,  the  epitomiser  of  the  imperfect  history  of 
Dion  Cassius,  was  the  nephew  of  the  patriarch. 

2  Brucker,  Hist.  Philos.  iii.  3  Anna  Comnena.  Alexiad.  v. 


TO  1453.]  MICHAEL  PSELLUS.  379 

and  in  argument  never  came  to  the  last  word.  He  then  joined  the 
school  of  Fsellus,  that  celebrated  scholar,  who  had  reached  the  highest 
point  of  erudition  and  wisdom — not  so  much  by  the  aid  of  masters, 
whose  doors  he  had  seldom  entered,  as  by  his  own  admirable  quick- 
ness and  capacity.  Perfectly  skilled  in  all  that  Greece  had  taught, 
he  added  to  it  the  acquirements  of  the  oriental  schools,  and  thus  ob- 
tained the  reputation  of  the  most  learned  man  of  whom  we  then 
could  boast."  This  scholar,  who  appears  to  have  been  in  a  great 
measure  self-taught,  kindled  a  general  ardour  in  the  public  mind.  A 
new  title,  that  of"  Prince  of  Philosophers,"  was  conferred  upon  him ; 
the  youth  of  Constantinople  crowded  to  his  lectures ;  and  the  door 
of  civil  honours  was  opened  to  his  merits.  We  have  seen  that  he 
numbered  among  his  pupils  the  emperor  Michael  VII.,  and  the 
example  of  the  prince,  as  we  may  readily  suppose,  was  followed  by 
many  courtiers.  Here,  however,  Psellus  did  not  escape  reproach. 
He  adopted,  it  seems,  the  maxim  of  Plato,  that  governments  could 
not  be  well  administered  without  philosophy;  and  concluding,  in  the 
pride  of  superior  wisdom,  that  whatever  fell  from  his  own  lips  was 
entitled  to  the  name  of  philosophy,  when  he  discovered  that  Michael 
was  utterly  void  of  talents,  he  amused  him  with  the  puerilities  which 
I  mentioned,  and  permitted  the  state  to  be  neglected.  "  Our  em- 
peror," the  common  complaint  was,  "  deceived  and  idly  occupied  by 
the  prince  of  philosophers,  is  bringing  ruin  on  all  his  subjects."  The 
reputation  of  Psellus  began  to  decline,  and  John  the  Italian,  who 
was  now  his  rival,  was  at  hand  to  avail  himself  of  the  incident. 

The  following  passage  is  curious  :'  "  The  Italian  now  gained  ad- 
miration, and  his  efforts  were  crowned  with  the  applause,  not  of  the 
multitude  only,  but  of  the  nobles,  and  of  the  emperor  Michael  and 
his  brothers.  To  Psellus,  indeed,  they  did  not  refuse  the  palm  of 
science  and  the  highest  place  of  estimation  ;  but  they  were  delighted 
with  the  Italian,  and  to  him  they  had  recourse  in  their  logical  dis- 
putations. The  imperial  family,  in  all  its  branches,  were  devoted  to 
letters,  and  their  countenance  gave  confidence  to  the  rival  of  Psellus. 
He  met  him  in  dispute  :  and  when  with  ease,  and  with  the  velocity 
of  an  eagle,  the  superior  man  broke  asunder  the  wily  nets,  and 
escaped  from  the  captious  artifices  of  the  sophist,  he  regarded  him 
with  a  furious  eye.  The  agitation  of  his  limbs  and  his  noisy  cla- 
mours, attested  his  jealous  feelings  and  the  anguish  of  disappointment." 
I  have  said  what  after  this  was  the  fate  of  Psellus ;  and  John  the 
Italian  succeeded  to  his  honours  as  a  teacher,  and  to  the  title  of 
"  Prince  of  Philosophers,"  though  he  was  far  inferior  in  science  and 
in  literary  accomplishments.2 

Among  the  works  of  Psellus,  which  are  numerous  both  in  prose 
and  verse,  and  on  a  variety  of  subjects,3  I  observe  one  "  on  the  art 
of  making  gold"  (-mpi  xpvaoTrouag),  addressed  to  the  patriarch  Mi- 

1  Alexiiul.  v.  •  Hist.  I'hil.  iii. 

3  See  Diutriba  Leo  Allat.  in  Bib.  G.  v.  U. 


380         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.   [A.D.  500 

chael  Cerulerius.  On  his  general  style  of  writing,  an  able  critic  l 
pronounces  :  That  no  Greek,  either  in  that  or  the  following  age,  was 
more  acute  in  invention,  more  judicious  in  arrangement,  wrote  with 
more  eloquence,  or  on  every  subject  displayed  more  profound  re- 
search. Nor  was  there  any  science,  he  adds,  which  he  did  not  illus- 
trate by  notes,  or  attempt  happily  to  abridge,  or  to  set  off  by  some 
improved  method. 

The  age  added  two  more  historians  to  the  Byzantine  list,  Cedrenus 
and  John  Scylitzes.  The  first  compiled  an  Abridgment  of  Histories 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  the  time  of  Isaac  Comnenus, 
1057,  a  work  wholly  extracted  from  other  authors ;  whence  the  fable 
of  the  jackdaw  has  been  applied  to  him.  The  second  wrote  the 
Histoj~y  of  Events  in  the  East,  from  the  year  8 1 1  to  the  reign  of 
Alexius  Comnenus,  in  1081.2  Of  these,  and  of  the  other  Byzantine 
historians,  I  may  add  to  what  I  before  observed,  that,  compared  with 
contemporary  Latin  writers,  their  style  is  more  pure,  and  the  arrange- 
ment more  correct ;  but  that  we  everywhere  discern  almost  equal 
credulity  and  want  of  critical  discernment.  We  may  then  safely 
pronounce  what  was  the  character  of  the  age.  No  writer,  whatever 
be  his  own  propensities,  will  hazard  the  recital  of  idle  fables  and 
groundless  facts,  unless  conscious  that  his  readers  are  sufficiently 
ignorant  or  superstitious  to  admit  them  with  unhesitating  promp- 
titude. 

In  1081,  Alexius  Comnenus,  the  second  of  the  four  surviving 
nephews  of  Isaac,  the  founder  of  the  dynasty,  was  invested  with  the 
purple.  This  prince  was  endowed  by  nature  with  her  choicest  gifts ; 
educated  in  the  school  of  obedience  and  adversity,  and  improved  by 
all  the  advantages  of  a  liberal  education.  His  life  has  been  trans- 
mitted to  us  by  the  pen  of  a  favourite  daughter,  and  must  therefore 
be  read  with  caution.  As  it  is  conveyed  through  other  channels,3  in 
which  there  is  less  panegyric,  and  perhaps  more  truth,  it  is  certainly 
entitled  to  less  unqualified  praise  ;  but,  compared  with  other  times, 
his  reign  of  thirty- seven  years,  though  sometimes  disfigured  by  cala- 
mities and  clouded  by  defeats,  was  a  reign  of  glory. 

The  general  ardour  which  we  perceived  in  quest  of  science,  parti- 
cularly about  the  court  and  in  the  higher  circles  of  society,  was  likely 
to  be  augmented  rather  than  lessened,  when  a  prince  was  on  the 
throne  who  was  better  able  to  appreciate  merit,  though  less  disposed 
to  encourage  sophistry.  We  are  told  that  Alexius  cultivated  learn- 
ing, but  not  with  that  solicitude  which  many  seemed  to  expect.  But 
he  promoted,  however,  men  of  science  ;  and  when  the  chair  of  By- 
zantium became  vacant,  filled  it  with  a  prelate  who  had  been  "  prac- 
tised from  his  youth  in  the  discipline  of  sacred  and  profane  letters." 
He  constructed  and  endowed  receptacles  for  orphans,  for  the  infirm, 
and  for  the  aged,  and  what  showed  how  little  his  predecessors,  not- 

i  Leo  Allatius,  ill  Bib.  G.  v.  14.  2  Bib.  G.  v.  5,  vi. 

3  See  Zonoras  Annal.  iii. 


TO  1453.]  THE    FIRST    CRUSADE.  381 

withstanding  their  ostentatious  attachment  to  what  was  called  philo- 
sophy, had  consulted  the  real  interests  of  their  subjects,  he  opened 
schools  of  grammar,  wherein  masters  were  appointed,  and  the  children 
of  the  poor  were  instructed  and  nourished.  On  some  occasions  he 
seems  to  have  emulated  the  fame,  which  was  so  richly  possessed  by 
the  great  Justinian,  of  a  theological  controversialist ;  for  the  histo- 
rian '  relates,  that  he  once  passed  many  months  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Philippopolis,  disputing  with  the  Manicheans,  or,  as  they  were 
called,  the  Paulitian  heretics,  many  of  whom  he  brought  over  to  the 
orthodox  faith. 

The  two  persons  who  singularly  graced  the  court  of  Alexius,  and 
reflected  honour  on  the  age,  were  Anna  Comnena,  his  eldest  and 
favourite  daughter,  and  her  husband  Nicephorus  Bryennius.  The 
power  of  the  latter  was  great.  The  chief  administration  of  the  laws, 
and  the  domestic  concerns  of  the  palace,  were  entrusted  to  his  care. 
He  likewise  excelled  in  the  various  branches  of  literature,  "  while 
his  wife,  richly  endowed  by  nature,  and  possessing  a  tongue  attuned 
to  the  tones  of  Attic  elegance,  pursued  the  same  path  with  increas- 
ing avidity,  and  dared  to  fathom  the  depths  of  abstruse  contempla- 
tion. Her  time  was  passed  with  her  books,  or  in  the  society  of  the 
learned."  -  In  a  city  not  void  of  taste,  such  exalted  characters  would 
naturally  excite  admiration ;  and  as  the  partiality  of  Alexius  was 
always  visible,  and  the  empress  Irene  did  not  disguise  her  views,  a 
suspicion  generally  prevailed,  that  he  might  be  induced,  by  fondness 
or  intreaty,  to  supersede  the  lawful  heir,  and  invest  the  learned  pair 
with  the  purple.  Had  the  purple  been  really  offered,  we  have  too 
much  reason  to  believe  that  the  philosophy  of  Cornnena  would  not 
have  rejected  the  alluring  bait. 

It  was  in  this  reign,  and  towards  the  close  of  the  century,  that 
the  western  world  engaged  in  the  first  crusade ;  an  undertaking, 
which,  as  I  remarked,  was  engendered  some  years  before  in  the 
rapacious  mind  of  Gregory  VII.,  rendered  popular  by  the  preaching 
of  Peter  the  Hermit,  and  finally  matured  in  the  council  of  Clermont 
by  Urban  II.  The  East  beheld  with  astonishment  the  vast  inunda- 
tion of  human  beings  which  overflowed  its  provinces,  which  the 
inhabitants  of  Byzantium  were  told  to  believe  had  been  presaged 
by  a  portentous  flight  of  locusts  in  the  preceding  year.3  Measures, 
which  were  marked  by  temerity,  or  not  tempered  by  prudence,  might 
have  endangered  the  throne  ;  and  we  have  reason  to  admire  the 
superior  policy  of  Alexius,  in  his  intercourse  with  an  ebbing  and 
flowing  multitude,  irascible,  insolent,  and  powerful,  by  whom  his 
citv  v.  as  encompassed  for  many  months.  In  that  policy,  however, 
the  Latin  writers  could  see  nothing  but  a  tissue  of  perfidious  conduct 
and  hostile  designs. 

While  these  numerous  myriads  from  various  nations,  and  of  all 
ranks  in  society,  were  detained  on  the  western  shores  of  the  Bos- 

1  Zonaras,  Annal.  iii.  2  Ibid.  3  Ibid. 


382         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

phorus,  it  may  be  asked  whether  none  of  them  would  be  disposed, 
from  curiosity  or  other  motives,  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  letters 
and  the  liberal  arts  among  a  people  of  whose  talents  and  acquirements 
they  had  often  heard,  and  whose  superiority,  many  objects,  which 
were  forced  upon  their  observation,  would,  in  spite  of  prejudices, 
compel  them  to  own  ?  But  though  the  magnificence  of  the  Byzan- 
tine court,  or  the  splendour  of  palaces,  might  sometimes  engage  their 
attention,  yet,  intent  on  plunder  or  pleasure,  or  the  accomplishment 
of  their  grand  designs,  they  would  be  little  disposed  to  look  into 
schools  and  libraries,  or  to  balance  the  merits  of  historians,  philoso- 
phers, and  poets.  Besides,  they  had  no  knowledge  of  the  language ; 
and  if,  at  home,  the  treasures  of  Latin  literature  were  entirely 
neglected,  while  easier  means  of  enjoying  them  could  be  procured, 
there  was  little  probability  that  Greece  would  at  once  inspire  them 
with  taste  and  a  more  laudable  curiosity.  The  reader  will  recollect 
•what  was  said  of  the  learned  Liutprand,  bishop  of  Cremona.1 

It  could  not  be  unwelcome  to  Alexius  to  hear  that  whole 
armies — if  the  name  of  army  could  be  applied  to  such  a  motley  as- 
semblage of  men  and  women,  monks,  priests,  and  children — had 
perished ;  and  though  the  real  soldiers,  headed  by  their  renowned 
commanders,  advanced  and  conquered,  few,  if  any,  would  return 
again  to  harass  his  patience  by  their  insolence,  or  to  endanger  the 
state  by  their  ambition.  He  listened  with  indifference  to  the  reports 
of  their  disasters  or  their  victories  ;  and  when  Jerusalem  was  taken 
in  1099,  he  had  yet  eighteen  years  to  reign. 

The  impious  attempt  of  the  empress  Irene  to  place  the  imperial 
diadem  on  the  heads  of  NicephorusBryennius  and  her  daughter  Anna, 
ceased  only  with  the  expiring  breath  of  Alexius.  "  Nicephorus," 
she  urged,  "  is  possessed  of  superior  eloquence,  and  peculiarly 
adapted  to  business  :  he  is  skilled,  moreover,  in  the  liberal  arts,  and 
these,  while  they  form  the  mind  to  virtue,  become  powerfully  useful, 
whether  the  state  is  to  be  governed  in  peace,  or  protected  in  time  of 
•war."  Little  doubt  could  remain  respecting  the  persons  who  sug- 
gested this  address  :  and  when  Alexius,  who  was  immoveable  in  the 
cause  of  justice,  was  dead,  and  the  rightful  heir,  his  son  John  Com- 
nenus,  was  seated  on  the  throne,  twelve  months  did  not  elapse  before 
a  conspiracy  was  formed  to  transfer  the  government  to  his  sister, 
Anna  Comnena.  It  failed  through  the  fears,  the  indolence,  or  per- 
haps the  just  scruples  of  her  husband,  who,  according  to  the  histo- 
rian,2 was  asleep  when  he  should  have  been  at  the  head  of  the 
conspirators :  Anna  fiercely  upbraided  him,  exclaiming,  "  that 
nature  had  mistaken  the  sexes,  and  given  to  Bryennius  the  soul  of  a 
woman."  John  had  the  magnanimity  to  pardon  this  flagrant  act  of 
treason ;  and  Nicephorus  continued  to  enjoy  his  confidence. 

The  ambition  of  the  philosophic  princess,  which  was  thus  disgraced 

1  Liutprand  is  severely  criticised  in  the  first  volume  of  Nicholas  Antonio's 
JSibliotlu'ca  Hispana  Vi-tus,  published  at  Madrid,  1788. 

2  Nicetas  Choniates  Aniial.  in  Joan.  Comnena. 


TO  1453.]  JOHN  COMNENA.  383 

by  treason,  reflected  no  honour  on  the  "  liberal  arts,"  which  she 
professed  to  love,  and  which,  as  she  instructed  her  mother  to  say, 
had  power  "  to  form  the  mind  to  virtue."  That  their  influence 
would  have  been  more  propitious  in  the  concerns  of  government  had 
she  been  permitted  to  reign,  we  are  not  authorised  to  infer  ;  but  we 
know  from  history,  that  through  a  period  of  five  and  twenty  years 
the  administration  of  John  Cumnena  was  distinguished  by  many 
virtues  and  great  military  renown  ;  and  we  may  therefore  conclude, 
that  his  maxims  were  drawn  from  a  less  deceitful  source  than  the 
schools  of  sophistical  disputation.  That  he  had  speculated,  however, 
and  not  idly,  may  be  collected  from  a  certain  measure  of  govern- 
ment which  only  a  philosopher  would  have  projected  in  so  large 
and  so  vicious  a"  community.  He  abolished  the  penalty  of  death ; 
and  "  during  his  reign,  not  a  single  person  suffered  death  or  was 
corporally  punished."  He  likewise  moderated  the  expensive  magni- 
ficence of  the  court ;  and  whilst  himself  set  the  example,  he 
attempted  a  laudable  reformation  in  the  public  and  private  manners 
of  the  people.  To  what  extent  he  had  cultivated,  or  how  much  he 
patronised  letters  we  are  not  told;  but,  from  the  pursuits  of  the 
Byzantine  court  during  his  minority,  and  the  noble  tendencies  of  his 
own  mind  when  he  assumed  the  government,  we  may  be  confident 
that  he  at  no  time  neglected  the  best  interests  of  science. 

We  may,  perhaps,  be  allowed  to  lament,  that  the  love  of  military 
glory  was  one  of  his  predominant  characteristics.  His  life  was  spent 
in  camps  or  in  warlike  preparations.  "  He  remained  at  home,"  says 
the  historian,  "  merely  to  be  seen  by  his  subjects,  and  to  recreate 
his  spirits  by  theatrical  exhibitions,  while  the  soldiers  visited  their 
families,  refreshed  their  horses,  and  sharpened  their  arms  for  action." 
When  wounded  by  a  poisoned  arrow,  in  a  remote  valley  of  Cilicia, 
he  delivered  his  last  instructions  in  the  agonies  of  death.  Amongst 
many  excellent  reflections  which  he  uttered  on  this  occasion,  he 
observed  :  "  The  east  and  the  west  have  seen  me  in  arms  :  their 
nations  have  felt  the  weight  of  our  attacks  :  my  life  has  been  passed 
not  in  palaces  but  in  tents,  for  it  was  ever  my  wish  to  breathe  the 
free  air  of  the  heavens.  Twice  already  have  I  seen  this  laud,1 
which  is  now  covered  by  our  camp." 

But  though  John  Comnena  was  a  warrior,  his  government  was 
so  strong  and  so  respected,  that,  after  the  first  year,  it  was  never 
disturbed  by  any  conspiracy  or  rebellion.  Thus  a  more  fortunate 
period  could  not  have  been  selected  for  the  prosecution  of  letters 
and  the  arts  of  peace.  If  it  was  permitted  to  pass  unprofitably,  let 
the  evil  be  ascribed  to  the  inveteracy  of  causes  which  had  been  long 
felt ;  but  on  this  and  on  many  other  occasions  we  have  to  regret  the 
dearth  of  information.  Military  occurrences,  whether  successful  or 
unsuccessful,  domestic  quarrels,  portentous  or  trifling  incidents,  are 
detailed  to  satiety  ;  but  the  progress  or  decline  of  man,  his  intellec- 
tual exertions,  the  state  of  society,  the  additions  made  to  the  store* 


1  Id.  ib. 


384         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

of  science,  the  names  of  authors,  and  the  characters  of  their  works, 
if  at  all  recorded,  occupy  only  a  few  passing  lines  ;  and  the  judgment 
which  we  are  disposed  to  form  must  frequently  rest  solely  on  the 
comparative  value  of  the  writer  in  our  hands,  the  sterility  of  whose 
communications  we  are  compelled  to  blame. 

The  controversy  with  the  Latin  church,  on  certain  points  con- 
nected with  ancient  rites  and  discipline — which  had  been  formed  by 
Michael  Cerularius — if  it  fomented  animosity,  was  not  without  its 
use  ;  it  excited  a  spirit  of  inquiry,  and  gave  employment  to  talents. 
At  the  same  time  the  ecclesiastical  superiors,  particularly  the  patri- 
archs of  Constantinople,  were  strenuous  in  promoting  learning  and 
encouraging  merit,  lest  indifference  or  sloth  should  deprive  their 
church  of  champions  to  defend  her  cause.  In  this  point  of  view,  it 
may  with  truth  be  said,  that  all  the  errors  which  at  different 
periods  disturbed  or  divided  the  faith  of  Christians,  exerted  in  some 
measure  a  salutary  influence  by  the  excitement  which  they  afforded  to 
intellectual  activity. 

The  early  part  of  this  century  could  boast  of  some  historical 
writers.  John  Zonaras,  whom  I  have  often  quoted,  had  been  employed 
in  the  offices  of  the  court ;  but  having  lost  his  wife  and  children, 
retired  to  a  convent.  Here,  as  he  enjoyed  leisure,  and  was  known  to 
possess  abilities,  he  was  often  urged  by  the  monks  to  undertake  some 
historical  composition.  They  dwelt  on  what  they  conceived  to  be 
the  blemishes  of  historians,  particularly  those  of  less  modern  date, 
stating  what  should  be  avoided  and  what  most  carefully  pursued. 
Passing  from  the  matter  to  the  style,  they  observed :'  "  In  these 
compositions,  passages  sometimes  occur  which  are  so  inelegantly,  so 
rudely  expressed,  and  even  disfigured  by  such  plebeian  and  barbarous 
phrases,  that  men  of  letters  turn  with  disgust  from  the  perusal." 

The  monks  had  some  taste  and  critical  discrimination.  Zonaras 
listened  to  their  advice ;  and  at  the  same  time,  in  order  to  fill  his 
many  vacant  hours,  he  compiled  his  Annals  of  History  from  the 
earliest  times  to  the  death  of  Alexius  Comnenus,  in  1018.  The 
brevity  which  is  inseparable  from  such  a  Compendium  has  occa- 
sioned many  omissions  in  his  narrative ;  but  we  are  under  many 
obligations  to  him  for  much  information  in  the  latter  portion  of  his 
Annals  which  cannot  be  elsewhere  found.  Sensible,  it  should  seem, 
that  his  work  and  style  of  writing  required  some  apology,  he  says  : 
"  If  all  its  parts  be  not  properly  finished,  the  reader  must  be  in- 
dulgent. Perhaps,  in  this  my  retirement,  I  was  not  provided  with 
all  necessary  works  ;  perhap  s  the  authors  of  these  works  disagreed 
in  their  accounts  of  the  same  events,  which  accounts  therefore,  to 
avoid  prolixity,  I  passed  over.  And  let  no  one  wonder  or  blame  the 
narration,  or  me  its  parent,  should  the  diction  be  found  various  and  not 
always  like  itself.  Obliged  to  borrow  from  others,  I  took  their  style 
and  language ;  when  I  added  from  myself,  it  was  my  wish,  in  order 

1  Annul,  i. 


TO   1453.]  ANNA    COMNENA.  385 

to  preserve  some  uniformity,  to  imitate  the  writer  whom  I  copied."1 
He  is  the  author  of  other  works.2 

Nicephorus  Bryennius,  also,  whose  character  and  literary  accom- 
plishments have  been  already  mentioned,3  when  he  had  leisure  from 
the  important  avocations  of  office,  was  anxious  to  pursue  this 
favourite  path  to  fame.  About  the  year  1137  he  accompanied  his 
master  into  Syria,  and  returning  in  an  infirm  state  of  health,  shortly 
died,  leaving  behind  him  a  History  of  the  Affairs  of  Byzantium, 
from  the  beginning  of  the  Comnenian  dynasty  in  1057  to  the  reign 
of  Alexius  in  1081.  It  is  probable  that  he  intended  to  have  sub- 
joined the  transactions  of  this  reign,  in  which  himself  bore  no 
inconsiderable  part,  particularly  as  the  work  was  undertaken  at  the 
request  of  the  empress  Irene.  To  whom  could  she  so  safely  entrust 
her  fame  and  the  deeds  of  a  varied  and  active  life  as  to  him,  whose 
deserts  she  manifested  so  much  solicitude  to  reward  with  a  crown  ? 
He  was  besides  particularly  attached  to  Alexius,  his  father-in-law, 
his  patron,  his  protector,  his  friend.  We  may  therefore  regret  that 
the  work  was  not  accomplished,  for,  from  the  sample  which  he  has 
left  of  his  talents,  we  have  authority  to  conclude  that  his  History  of 
the  Reign  of  Alexius  would  have  proved  the  richest  gem  in  the 
Byzantine  collection.  In  Nicephorus  we  see  a  writer  who  had 
managed  the  concerns  of  an  empire  and  headed  armies. 

His  wife,  Anna  Comnena,  undertook  and  finished  what  he  was  not 
permitted  to  execute.4  After  the  attempt  against  her  brother's  life 
and  crown,  though  his  clemency  pardoned  the  crime,  his  prudence 
would  direct  him  to  guard  against  her  future  machinations.  She 
seems,  however,  to  have  resided  near  the  court,  still  partaking  of  the 
favours  and  prosperity  of  Bryennius ;  still  "  attuning  her  tongue  to 
the  tones  of  Attic  elegance ;"  and  still  indulging  her  taste,  "  sometimes 
in  books,  sometimes  in  the  conversation  of  the  learned."  But  when 
her  husband,  whose  great  character  formed  her  safeguard,  was  no 
more,  Anna  withdrew  from  the  public  scene  ;  and  solacing  her  grief 
in  literary  retirement,  produced  the  Alexiad,  or  the  History  of  the 
reign  of  her  father,  in  fifteen  books.  Much  has  been  written  in 
praise  of  this  performance,  which  is  at  once  diffuse  and  elegant ;  but 
censure  has  been  sometimes  mingled  with  the  commendation  it  has 
received.  The  character  of  a  daughter,  though  it  claimed  indulgence, 
naturally  excited  suspicion.  The  means  of  accurate  information  were 
within  her  reach ;  and  she  professes  that  her  pen  was  directed  by 
unbiassed  truth.  When  I  read  the  Alexiad  some  years  ago,  there 
appeared  to  me  to  be  too  much  labour  to  win  belief;  and  that  an 
incessant  affectation  of  learning,  while  it  destroyed  that  simplicity  of 
narration  which  alone  can  please,  betrayed  the  vanity  of  an  author, 
immoderately  anxious  to  make  a  parade  of  her  talents.  The  genuine 

1  Annul,  i.  2  See  Bib.  G.  v.  4:>,  x. 

3  See  also  Dom  Cellier,  xxi.  and  xxiii. 

4  Cellier,  xxi. ;  Lebeau,  xviii.  34. 

C  C 


386         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

character  of  Alexius  ceases  to  be  discriminated  in  a  confused  cata- 
logue of  virtues  ;  and  the  perpetual  strain  of  panegyric  and  apology 
induces  a  pause,  during  which  the  inquisitive  reader  turns  to  the 
pages  of  other  writers  who  could  not  be  swayed  by  equal  partiality. 
The  inquiry  will  not  prove  quite  favourable,  though  an  equitable 
judge  would  be  equally  cautious  not  to  trust  to  the  invidious  state- 
ments of  the  crusaders  and  their  writers. 

On  the  death  of  John  Comnenus  in  1143,  his  second  son  Manuel, 
whom  the  dying  words  of  his  father  recommended  to  the  army, 
ascended  the  throne.  His  long  reign  of  thirty-seven  years,  filled  with 
the  vicissitudes  of  military  enterprises  against  the  Saracens,  the 
Christians,  and  the  barbarous  nations  beyond  the  Danube,  presented 
to  the  annalist '  subjects  of  considerable  interest ;  but  little  in  which 
literature  had  any  share. 

Again,  in  1147,  Constantinople  beheld  other  armies  of  crusaders, 
more  formidable  for  their  discipline  than  the  former,  surround  her 
walls ;  the  first  under  the  command  of  the  emperor  Conrad  III.,  the 
second  under  Louis  VII.  of  France.  And  again,  the  same  charges 
of  malevolence,  of  deceit,  and  of  perfidy,  which  were  brought  against 
Alexius,  are  repeated  in  heavier  criminations  against  the  grandson. 
The  Greeks  admit  the  charges  :  "  No  kind  of  mischief  was  there," 
says  the  historian,2  '•  which  the  emperor  did  not  himself  plot,  or 
cause  to  be  practised,  against  them."  But  having  described  the 
suspicious  aspect  of  the  expedition — which  was  accompanied  by 
women  in  the  indecent  attire  of  men,  and  whose  soldiers,  clothed  in 
steel,  seemed  to  thirst  for  blood — he  adds,  what  was  the  general 
policy  of  the  measures  :  "  That,  deterred  by  the  sufferings  of  their 
fathers,  no  new  armies  might  disturb  the  provinces  of  the  empire." 
In  truth,  a  salutary  lesson  was  soon  received.  The  army  of  Conrad 
perished  in  the  defiles  of  Mount  Taurus ;  and  Louis,  having  visited 
Jerusalem,  and  seen  his  army  melt  away  by  the  various  accidents  of 
war,  returned  into  France. 

Great  address  was  necessary  in  the  management  of  these  ferocious 
invaders,  whose  profound  casuists,  on  a  solemn  occasion,  had  the 
audacity  to  propose  the  seizure  of  Constantinople,  as  the  only  measure 
which  could  ensure  success  to  the  expedition.  "  The  holy  war  in 
which  we  are  engaged,"  observed  the  bishop  of  Langres  to  the 
French  king,  "is  just;  it  is  accordingly  just  that  we  adopt  the 
means  most  likely  to  give  it  success."  The  wily  Greeks  were  their 
superiors  in  stratagem ;  and  we  have  another  bishop  introduced, 
whose  features  may  well  represent  the  general  character  of  the 
nation.  When  the  German  army,  says  the  historian,3  was  in  the 
vicinage  of  Philippopolis,  no  disorder  happened  which  was  appre- 
hended. The  bishop  of  the  province,  named  Michael — an  eloquent 

1  Nicetas  Clioniat.  in  Manuel.  2  Nicet,  Annul,  in  Manuel, 

s  Ibid. 


TO   1453. J  SECOND  CRUSADE.  387 

man,  versed  in  every  branch  of  polite  learning,  and  very  captivating 
in  conversation — gained  the  ear  of  Conrad.  The  prince  was  prou(f, 
and  at  this  time  elated ;  but  he  was  so  fascinated  by  the  blandish- 
ments of  Michael's  oratory,  who  meaning  one  thing,  said  another, 
and,  Proteus  like,  transformed  himself  into  all  the  shapes  of 
friendship ;  so  that  Conrad  became  obedient  to  his  suggestions, 
accepted  his  invitations,  sat  down  at  his  table,  and  took  the  cup  of 
fellowship  from  his  hand.  Soon  after  this,  when  a  quarrel  ensued 
between  the  armies,  which  threatened  the  effusion  of  blood,  the  rage 
of  Conrad  was  soothed  by  the  voice  of  the  bishop,  and  tranquillity 
restored.  But  we  are  still  left  to  conjecture  in  what  manner  the 
melting  sweetness  of  Michael's  tongue  was  transfused  through  the 
rough  throat  of  a  Teutonic  interpreter. 

Manuel  himself  was   naturally  eloquent,  wrote  his  letters   with 
great  purity,  composed  religious  tracts  in  imitation  of  his  predeces- 
MH-S.  and  sometimes  publicly  declaimed  on  religious  subjects.     He 
did  not  even  decline  points  of  mysterious  import;  pretending  doubts, 
and  proposing  questions,   of  Which  he  demanded  the  solution  in 
assemblies  of  the  learned.     His  bold  curiosity,  and  a  pertinacious 
adherence  to  his  own  interpretations  in  preference  to  the  authority 
of  ancient  decisions,  were  not  lightly  censured.     On  some  occasions, 
however,  he  took  the  side  of  orthodoxy,  when  his  opposers,  who 
were  men  of  great  eminence,  were  dismissed  from  their  employments. 
Of  the  doctrinal  edicts  which  the  imperial  theologian  issued,  one 
abrogated  an  anathema  which  ancient  usage  had  pronounced  against 
"  the  God  of  Mahomet."     Manuel  had  sufficient  discrimination  to 
discover  blasphemy  in  the  anathema ;  and  he  besides  added,  that  it 
gave  offence  to  those  Saracens  who  might  be  inclined  to  embrace  the 
faith  of  Christ.     The  patriarch  and  other  prelates  were  firm.     A 
decree,  however,  was  formed,  than  which  nothing  more  eloquent  had 
been  seen.     This  was  proposed ( to  the  acceptance  of  the  bishops. 
They  still  continued  their  opposition  ;  and  when  they  were  com- 
manded, in  great  indignation,  to  attend  at  the  palace,  the  learned 
Eustathius,  bishop  of  Thessalonica,  signalised  his  zeal.   The  emperor 
who  was  IKMV  near  his  end,  was  too  ill  to  receive  them  ;   but  his 
secretary  was  commissioned  to  signify  his  royal  pleasure.     He  did 
it  in  the  high  tones  of  authority.     "  I  should,  indeed,  be  mad,"  ex- 
claimed Eustathius,  "  and  little  worthy  of  this  habit,"  taking  up  his 
episcopal  robe,  "  were  I  induced  to  say,  that  the  gross  being  ima- 
gined l,y  (Mthomet)  that  teacher  of  all  obscenity  and  wickedness, 
was  the  God  whom  we  adore."     The  bold  declaration  amazed  the 
prelates :  they  were  silent,  and  the  secretary,  without  saying  any- 
thing, returned  to  his  master.     It  matters  little  what  was  the  taoe 
of  this  contest.     Manuel  expressed  great  anger;    but,  after  some 
time,  he  consented  that  his  decree  should  be  expressed  in  less  ob- 
noxious words.'     His  astrologers  had  promised  him  years  of  glory ; 


Nicet.  Annul,  in  Manuel. 

c  c  2 


388         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

but  feeling  the  vanity  of  their  predictions,  he  called  for  the  habit  of 
a  monk,  and  substituting  it  for  the  royal  robe,  expired.  It  was  in 
the  year  1180. 

I  introduced  the  short  account  of  the  last  controversy,  to  show 
what  still  was  the  taste  of  the  Byzantine  court,  during  the  reign  of 
an  emperor  who  seemed  to  entertain  none  but  military  views  ;  but  I 
introduced  it  chiefly,  that  the  reader  might  become  acquainted  with 
a  man  of  whom  I  must  now  speak  more  at  length. 

Eustathius,  the  bishop  of  Thessalonica,  was  the  celebrated  Com- 
mentator on  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  of  Homer.  The  commentary 
is  now  extant  in  three  folio  volumes  ;  and  it  has  been  elegantly  de- 
nominated Kipag  ct[ia\6iiag,  the  horn  of  plenty.  Its  author  is  repre- 
sented as  endowed  with  virtue,  with  learning,  and  with  eloquence  ; 
practically  versed  in  the  details  of  business  ;  of  an  aspect  so  venerable, 
and  an  address  so  powerful,  that  his  presence  commanded  respect, 
and  his  words  ensured  submission.  When  Thessalonica  was  taken 
by  a  Sicilian  army,  and  treated  with  unheard  of  cruelty,  Eustathius 
interposed  the  influence  of  his  eloquence  in  favour  of  its  citizens,  and 
softened  the  rage  of  the  savage  conqueror.1  In  the  introduction  to 
his  Commentaries  he  speaks  with  great  modesty  of  the  undertaking, 
on  which,  he  says,  he  entered,  in  order  to  collect  a  variety  of  docu- 
ments, not  for  the  learned,  by  whom  they  were  not  wanted,  but  for 
the  use  of  young  men,  were  it  only  for  the  sake  of  bringing  back  to 
their  recollection  what  they  had  before  learned.  "  This  then,"  he 
adds,  "  I  have  done,  and  I  have  arranged  in  due  order  what  seemed 
most  useful,  not  borrowing  all  that  other  interpreters  of  the  poet  have 
written — which  would  be  an  endless  and  unprofitable  labour — but 
disposing  my  materials  in  such  a  manner,  that  each  reader  might 
find  what  was  most  agreeable  to  his  taste."  In  truth,  a  maxim, 
philosophical,  moral,  or  political,  will  hardly  be  found,  which, 
drawn,  as  Eustathius  fondly  fancied,  from  the  rich  mine  of  his  poet, 
is  not  admitted  into  this  horn  of  plenty.2 

While  our  admiration  is  raised  by  a  work  which  is  so  minute,  so 
comprehensive,  so  complete  in  all  its  parts,  interspersed  with  obser- 
vations and  passages  from  critics,  philologists,  poets,  and  historians, 
we  cannot  but  contemplate  with  delight  the  enthusiasm  by  which  he 
was  incited  to  the  laborious  undertaking,  and  sustained  during  its 
progress.  It  proves,  at  the  same  time,  that  the  poet — whose  immor- 
tal labours,  as  intimately  connected  with  the  interests  of  heathenism, 
had  been  warmly  decried  by  the  Christian  apologists — had  now 
assumed  his  proper  station.  Apprehension  could  no  longer  be 
caused  by  his  fables,  his  gods  and  their  achievements ;  and  this 
voluminous  commentary  furnishes  a  satisfactory  proof  of  the  ardour 
with  which  he  was  read.  That,  however,  it  should  have  been 
written  in  the  twelfth  century,  by  a  bishop,  who,  as  we  have  seen, 
•was  not  void  of  zeal  in  the  cause  of  orthodoxy,  and  who  was  famed 

1  Nicet.  Annal.  in  Andronic.  -  Bib.  G.  ii.  3,  i. 


TO   1453.]  ATHENJEUS.  389 

for  piety,  is  highly  favourable  to  the  Grecian  taste,  and  exhibits  a 
fact  in  the  history  of  letters,  on  which  I  dwell  with  peculiar  com- 
placency. 

From  the  statement  of  Eustathius,  we  learn  that  he  had  before 
him  many  comments  on  the  works  of  his  favourite  poet ;  and  from 
the  admiration  in  which  he  had  at  all  times  been  held,  it  cannot  be 
doubted  that  much  had  been  written  :  but  little  has  come  down  to  us 
which  is  more  ancient  than  this  commentary,  or  what  it  has  pre- 
served.1 He  was  greatly  indebted  to  the  Deipnosophist  of  Athenaeus  ; 
and  as  this  is  a  work  from  which  we  have  derived  our  principal 
knowledge  of  the  private  life  of  the  Greeks,  it  is  proper  that  I  should 
say  of  him  what  may  be  deemed  necessary.  lie  appears  to  have 
lived  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  of  our  era. 
Choosing  for  his  model  the  Symposion  or  Feast  of  Plato,  Athenaeus 
assembles  at  the  table  of  a  wealthy  Roman  a  number  of  learned  men, 
who  are  supposed  to  expend  much  erudition  on  every  part  of  the 
entertainment.  The  professed  object  of  the  author  was  to  detail  to 
his  contemporaries  the  convivial  antiquities  of  their  ancestors,  which 
he  does  in  the  convenient  and  lively  form  of  a  dialogue.  Discourses, 
which  are  replete  with  wit  and  urbanity,  pass  upon  the  liquors  and 
dishes,  with  disquisitions  on  a  variety  of  miscellaneous  topics,  height- 
ened by  curious  and  erudite  inquiries,  whilst  the  opinions  of  authors 
are  produced,  with  quotations  from  their -works.  This  forms  the  most 
interesting  portion  of  the  dialogue.  Indeed,  it  has  been  remarked, 
that  so  much  of  the  business  of  human  life  is  mediately  or  imme- 
diately connected  with  eating  and  drinking,  that  no  great  ingenuity 
was  required  to  introduce  many  curious  particulars,  and  much  useful 
information.  From  the  mass  of  extracts,  Athenaeus  appears  to  have 
been  more  especially  conversant  with  the  comic  poets  and  theatrical 
writers.-  His  work,  however,  as  we  possess  it,  is  very  imperfect ; 
but  fortunately  a  copious  epitome  of  the  whole  had  been  formed  at 
an  early  period.  This  has  been  transmitted  to  us  entire,  and  Eusta- 
thius himself  made  use  of  it  in  compiling  his  Commentary. 

How  rich  then  is  the  store  of  Grecian  literature ;  for  though 
almost  innumerable  originals  have  perished,  yet  Athenaeus,  Stobaeus, 
1'hotius,  Suidas,  and  others,  have  preserved  fragments,  which  convey 
no  imperfect  sketch  of  their  authors'  talents,  and  which,  like  gems, 
may  have  acquired  value  from  their  rarity. 

About  the  time  of  Eustathius,  two  other  critics,  who  were  brothers, 
Isaac  and  John  Tzetzes,  but  particularly  the  latter,  pursued  the 
same  literary  career,  if  not  with  all  the  fame  of  the  archbishop  of 
Thessalonica,  with  a  credit  highly  honourable  to  themselves  and  the 
age.  John,  whose  education  had  led  him  through  the  various 
departments  of  polite  and  scientific  learning,  is  known  to  us  as  a 

1  Bib.  G.  ii.  :),  i.     See  also  Lebeau,  xx.  00,  and  Schoell,  Hist,  de  la  Lit- 
t< mtiire  Grecque,  i.  10. 

2  See  Bib.  G.  iv.  20,  iii. 


390         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

poet,  as  a  grammarian,  as  a  scholiast  on  the  Theogony  of  Hesiod,  as 
a  commentator  on  the  obscure  production  of  Lycophron,  entitled 
Cassandra,  and  by  allegorical  annotations  on  Homer.1  But  his  prin- 
cipal work  is  entitled  Chiliades,  which  is  replete  with  various  learn- 
ing on  history,  fables,  and  philosophy,  and  written  in  a  peculiar  kind 
of  verse,  if  verse  it  may  be  called,  which,  neglecting  quantity, 
observes  only  a  fixed  number  of  syllables.2  I  may  perhaps  before 
have  made  the  observation  in  regard  to  all  these  scholiasts  and  com- 
mentators— whatever  may  have  been  their  age  or  country — that 
unless  their  contemporaries  had  called  for  it,  they  would  not  have 
subjected  themselves  to  the  labour  of  researches  so  uninviting  and 
jejune.  An  age  of  scholiasts  is  an  age  of  readers. 

After  the  death  of  Manuel,  in  1180,  the  remaining  years  of  the 
twelfth  century  formed  a  period  of  revolution,  of  calamity,  and 
blood,  under  his  infant  son  Alexius  ;  under  Andronicus,  the  mur- 
derer of  that  son  and  the  usurper  of  his  throne  ;  under  Isaac  Angelus, 
who  punished  and  succeeded  to  the  last  tyrant ;  and  under  Alexius 
Angelus  his  brother,  by  whom  Isaac  was  dethroned  in  1 195.  It  Avas 
now,  and  long  had  been,  the  savage  practice  when  death  was  not  in- 
flicted on  an  enemy  whose  return  to  power  was  apprehended,  to 
deprive  him  of  his  sight. 

In  the  reign  of  Isaac  Angelus,  when  Jerusalem  had  been  retaken 
by  the  puissant  Saladin,  Frederic  Barbarossa,  opening  the  third 
crusade,  marched  by  Constantinople  on  his  way  to  Palestine.  In  the 
following  year,  1 190,  two  other  armies,  one  of  which  was  commanded 
by  the  French  king  Philip  Augustus,  the  other  by  our  Richard, 
with  a  better  prospect  of  success — trusting  their  hopes  rather  to  the 
sea  than  to  the  treachery  of  the  Byzantine  court — embarked  at  dif- 
ferent ports,  and  in  the  spring  of  the  year  1191  joined  the  besieging 
army  before  the  walls  of  Ptolemais.  The  jealousies  which  soon 
divided  these  princes,  when  Philip  returned  to  France,  and  the  heroic 
achievements  of  Richard  in  Palestine,  are  well  known  to  every 
reader ;  and  it  is  known  to  every  reader  that  a  crusade,  which  had 
drained  Germany,  France,  and  England  of  treasure  and  of  their 
ablest  warriors,  could  boast  only  of  the  capture  of  the  single  city  of 
Ptolemais  ;  whilst  Jerusalem,  and  all  the  fruits  of  former  victories, 
a  few  excepted,  were  irrecoverably  lost. 

The  western  champions  of  the  cross  had  hitherto  in  general  passed 
the  capital  of  the  East;  and  as  their  transit  was  rapid,  or  the  circum- 
stances which  attended  and  often  harassed  their  march,  permitted 
little  attention  to  anything  except  the  immediate  concerns  of  war, 
we  might  be  disposed  to  excuse,  if  not  to  justify,  their  apparent 
contempt  of  the  literature  and  attainments  of  the  Greeks.  But  will 
these  sturdy  warriors  display  the  same  insensibility,  ignorance,  and 
barbarism,  when  a  surprising  series  of  events  shall  effect  a  more 

1  Sclioell,  ut  sup.  i.  17 — 343.  -  See  Bib.  G.  v.  42,  x. 


TO  1453.]  CONSTANTINOPLE  TAKEN.  391 

permanent  establishment,  and  force  the  valuable  or  the  curious  pro- 
ductions of  literature  or  the  arts  upon  their  observation  ? 

A  band  of  French  nobles,  allied  with  the  republic  of  Venice,  had 
taken  the  cross  at  the  head  of  an  army  which  was  not  formidable  in 
point  of  numljers ;  but  instead  of  directing  their  course  towards 
Palestine,  they  sailed  directly  for  Constantinople,  with  the  design  of 
restoring  Isaac  Angelus  to  the  throne.  This  prince  had  implored 
their  aid  against  the  violence  of  his  brother  Alexius,  the  usurper,  as 
I  mentioned,  of  the  empire.  They  appeared  before  the  city  in  the 
summer  of  the  year  1203.  After  the  first  attack,  which  was  vigor- 
ously repelled,  the  usurper  basely  withdrew  into  Thrace ;  and  Isaac, 
who  was  released  from  his  dungeon,  upon  the  hard  conditions  which 
his  son  had  before  stipulated,  was,  in  conjunction  with  him,  reseated 
on  the  throne.  The  gates  of  Constantinople,  and  the  palaces  and 
churches,  with  their  sumptuous  and  splendid  decorations,  were 
thrown  open  to  the  free  inspection  of  the  Latins.  They  spent  the 
following  winter  in  the  suburb  of  Galata,  but  it  proved  fatal  to  the 
empire.  Through  malicious  design  or  mistaken  zeal,  a  large  portion 
of  the  city  in  one  of  its  most  populous  regions  was  reduced  to 
ashes ;  soon  after  which  the  people,  who  were  become  furious, 
demanded  a  more  worthy  leader.  They  found  one  in  a  prince  of  the 
houst-  of  Ducas,  who  was  also  named  Alexius.  This  chief  imbrued 
his  hands  in  the  blood  of  the  young  emperor,  and  his  father  soon 
followed  him  to  the  tomb ;  when  the  war  was  again  renewed,  and 
the  city  again  besieged. 

It  was  taken  by  storm,  and  suffered  all  the  horrors  of  pillage  and 
devastation.  The  Latin  narrator,1  who  was  present,  observes,  that 
" .- .'nice  the  creation  so  rich  a  prize  had  not  been  made ;"  and  the 
Greek  historian,-  who  was  also  an  eye  witness  of  the  catastrophe, 
describes  the  miseries  which  his  fellow  citizens  and  himself  endured. 
In  comparing  these  accounts,  we  find  that  the  rapacity,  licentious- 
ness, and  sacrilege  which  are  extenuated  by  the  one,  are  aggravated 
by  the  other.  In  order  to  insult  the  fallen  city,  the  manners,  the 
dress,  the  customs  of  the  Greeks,  were  exposed  to  ridicule  or  scorn 
in  ludicrous  exhibitions ;  and  pens,  inkstands,  and  paper  were  dis- 
played in  the  streets  as  the  ignoble  arms  or  contemptible  instruments 
of  a  race  of  students  and  of  scribes.  The  Greek  historian  in  return 
reproaches  the  conquerors  with  the  grossest  ignorance ;  but  in  the 
torrent  of  his  invective  and  lamentation,  he  seems  not  to  be  sensible 
that  no  epithets  which  the  copiousness  of  his  own  language  could 
supply,  were  sufficiently  strong  to  express  the  effeminate  and 
dastardly  conduct  of  his  countrymen  ;  when  four  hundred  thousand 

1  Godfrey  Villehardouin,  marshal  of  Champagne,  who  accompanied  the 
expedition,  aud  who  wrote,  in  the  rude  idiom  of  his  age  and  country,  ail 
account  of  it. 

-  Nicetas  of  Chona  in  Phrygia,  a  senator,  and  principal  secretary  in  the 
Byzantine  court,  author  of  the  Annals  of  his  own  times. 


392         OP  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

men  within  the  'city,  and  capable  of  bearing  arms  in  its  defence, 
were  subdued  by  a  handful  of  Latin  warriors. 

As  these  warriors  first  approached  the  sovereign  city,  they  are 
said  to  have  gazed  with  admiration  on  this  capital  of  the  East,  rising 
from  her  seven  hills,  and  towering  over  the  continents  of  Europe  and 
Asia.  With  sensations  of  apprehension,  they  contemplated  her 
long  chain  of  bulwarks,  with  her  lofty  ramparts  crowded  with  sol- 
diers and  spectators.  The  domes  and  spires  of  five  hundred  palaces 
and  churches  were  at  the  same  time  in  view.  When  they  entered, 
the  objects  of  internal  magnificence  were  not  less  striking  and  im- 
pressive. From  an  early  period  the  noblest  monuments  of  taste  had 
been  collected  and  carefully  preserved.  Of  these,  many  now  perished 
by  fire,  but  the  greater  part  by  the  unfeeling  avarice  of  the  con- 
querors ;  and  we  cannot  but  assent  to  the  complaints  and  invectives 
of  the  Byzantine  historian.  He  mentions  and  describes,  with  too 
many  flowers  of  speech  perhaps,  but  with  much  feeling,  several 
statues  of  exquisite  workmanship,  which  were  melted  into  money  for 
the  payment  of  the  troops,  or  destroyed  from  mere  wantonness ;  and 
the  warm  expressions  of  the  writer  have  been  adduced1  to  prove  that, 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  there  were  Greeks  who  had  a  taste  for  the 
fine  arts,  and  felt  an  enthusiastic  admiration  of  their  beauty. 

Among  those  which  are  mentioned,  the  principal  are — 1.  The  vic- 
torious charioteers,  cast  in  bronze,  standing  aloft  in  their  chariots, 
and  wheeling  round  the  goal.  2.  The  sphynx,  river-horse,  and 
crocodile,  which  had  probably  been  transported  from  Egypt.  3.  The 
she- wolf  suckling  Romulus  and  Remus,  a  subject  alike  pleasing  to 
the  old  and  the  new  Romans,  which  might  have  been  the  very  work 
to  which  Virgil  is  supposed  to  have  alluded  in  describing  the  shield 
of  ./Eneas.2  4.  An  eagle  holding  and  tearing  a  serpent  in  his  talons, 
which  the  Byzantines  ascribed  not  to  a  human  artist,  but  to  the 
magic  power  of  the  philosopher  Apollonius,  who,  by  this  talisman, 
effected  the  deliverance  of  the  city  from  such  venomous  reptiles. 
5.  An  ass  and  his  driver,  two  statues  brought  from  Actium,  and 
there  erected  by  Augustus  to  commemorate  a  verbal  omen,  which 
had  seemed  to  predict  his  victory.  6.  An  equestrian  statue  of 
Bellerophon  and  Pegasus.  7.  A  square  and  lofty  obelisk  of  brass, 
the  sides  embossed  with  a  variety  of  picturesque  and  rural  scenes ; 
birds  singing,  rustics  labouring,  or  playing  on  their  pipes  ;  sheep 
bleating ;  lambs  skipping ;  the  sea,  and  a  scene  of  fish  and  fishing ; 
naked  Cupids  laughing,  playing,  and  pelting  each  other  with  apples ; 
and,  on  the  summit,  a  female  figure  turning  with  the  slightest 
breath,  and  thence  denominated  the  attendant  of  the  wind.  8.  Paris, 
or  the  Phrygian  shepherd,  presenting  to  Venus  the  golden  apple. 
9.  A  Helen,  delineated  by  Nicetas,  in  all  the  charms  of  beauty  and 
elegance,  but  who  still  was  unable  "  to  mitigate  these  immitigable, 
these  iron-hearted  men."  10.  A  Hercules,  by  the  hand  of  Lysippus, 

1  Philological  Inquiries,  iii.  301 — 312.  2  ./En.  viii.  033. 


TO  1453.]  MONUMENTS  OF  ART  DESTROYED.  393 

of  such  magnitude  that  his  thumb  was  equal  to  the  waist,  his  leg  to 
the  stature  of  a  common  man ;  his  chest  ample,  his  shoulders  broad, 
his  limbs  strong  and  muscular,  his  hair  curled,  his  aspect  command- 
ing. Without  his  bow,  or  quiver,  or  club,  his  lion's  skin,  formidable 
even  in  brass,  carelessly  thrown  over  him,  he  was  seated  on  an  osier 
basket,  his  right  leg  and  arm  extended,  his  left  knee  bent  and  sup- 
porting his  elbow,  his  head  reclining  on  his  left  hand,  his  countenance 
indignant  and  pensive.  "  Yet  this  Hercules,  being  such  as  here 
delineated,  this  very  Hercules  did  not  these  men  spare!"  11.  A 
colossal  statue  of  Juno,  erected  in  the  forum  of  Constantine.  12.  A 
Minerva,  also  colossal,  thirty  feet  in  height,  and  representing  with 
admirable  spirit  the  attributes  and  character  of  the  goddess ;  "  so 
exquisitely  moulded,  that  the  lips,  as  the  spectator  fixed  his  eyes, 
seemed  to  speak ;  the  veins  were  visible ;  the  body,  where  not 
covered  by  the  flowing  robe,  soft  and  delicately  turned,  and  present- 
ing life  and  vigour  of  animation."  But  I  must  remark  that  this 
statue  was  broken  in  pieces,  after  the  first  siege,  by  a  mob  of  drunken 
citizens,  wildly  inferring  from  the  position  of  the  eyes,  and  the  right 
hand  turning  towards  the  Latin  camp,  that  she  was  inviting  the 
enemy  to  enter  the  walls.  "  Self-  armed  for  destruction,"  concludes 
the  historian,  "  this  infatuated  people  would  not  suffer,  even  in 
bronze,  to  remain  amongst  them  the  image  of  fortitude  and  wisdom."1 

What  was  the  fate  of  some,  or  many,  of  the  Byzantine  libraries, 
is  not  related.  Paper  or  parchment  held  out  no  temptation  to  ava- 
rice ;  and  the  pilgrims,  feeling  no  predilection  for  science,  particu- 
larly when  locked  up  in  an  unknown  tongue,  would  not  be  solicitous 
to  seize  or  purloin  the  works  of  the  learned.  But  we  cannot  doubt 
that  many  perished  in  the  three  fires  which  raged  in  the  city ;  and  some 
writings  of  antiquity,  which  are  known  to  have  existed  in  the  twelfth 
century,  are  now  lost.  What  then  existed,  we  learn  with  certainty 
from  the  valuable  compilations  of  which  I  have  lately  spoken.  The 
literature  of  the  Greeks,  which  had  been  expelled  by  conquering 
armies,  particularly  from  the  Eastern  provinces,  almost  centered  within 
the  walls  of  the  capital ;  and  it  must,  therefore,  on  the  present  occasion 
have  been  nearly  destroyed  in  the  mass.  The  victors  might  not, 
indeed,  have  been  quite  so  gross  as  the  historian  in  the  anguish  of  his 
sufferings  represents  them,  but  still  I  suspect  that  he  did  not  much 
exceed  the  truth  when  he  called  them  rov  KO\OV  'avtpaorot  £ap£apot, 
"  barbarians  without  any  feeling  of  the  beautiful  and  the  fair." 

But  as  they  knew  how  to  conquer,  they  knew  how  to  divide  the 
spoils  of  conquest.  Baldwin,  count  of  Flanders,  was  unanimously 
chosen  emperor,  with  a  fourth  part  of  the  Grecian  monarchy  for  his 

1  I  have  copied  in  these  extracts  from  Nicetns  the  translations,  sometimes 
of  Mr.  (iibbon  (vol.  v.  171.),  sometimes  of  Mr.  Harris  ( I'liil.  Ing.  iii.),  as 
my  edition  contains  not  the  enumeration  of  all  the  statues.  See  the  above 
two  authors. — The  original  I  have  since  seen,  and  could  copy  from  it  many 
other  curious  specimens. 


394         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

share ;  and  the  remaining  portions,  which  had  been  divided  accord- 
ing to  agreement  into  two  moieties,  were  distributed  amongst  the 
Venetians  and  the  adventurers  from  France. 

He  who  is  fond  of  history  may  peruse  the  annals  of  the  reigns  of 
the  five  Latin  princes  who  from  1204  to  1261  filled,  if  they  did  not 
honour,  the  Byzantine  throne.  At  the  expiration  of  which  period 
it  was  recovered  by  the  Greeks. 

It  belongs  not  to  me  to  trace  the  advantages  which  were  derived 
from  this  event,  except  in  a  literary  point  of  view ;  but  I  will  merely 
note  it  as  a  curious  incident  in  the  labyrinth  of  human  politics,  that 
though  the  pretended  motive  for  the  capture  and  detention  of  Con- 
stantinople, and  that  which  reconciled  the  timorous  consciences  of 
many  to  the  measure,  was  the  supposed  facilities  which  it  wrould 
hereafter  afford  to  the  crusading  armies  in  their  march  to  the  east. 
not  one  of  these  armies  took  that  route  in  the  three  expeditions  which 
ensued.  The  last  indeed,  but  only  the  last,  under  Louis  IX.,  in 
1270,  was  posterior  to  the  recapture.  And  as  to  letters,  the  advan- 
tages to  either  nation  are  rather  problematical.  Their  animosity, 
which  was  embittered  by  religious  differences,  did  not  permit  any 
amicable  intercourse  in  which  instruction  is  given  and  returned; 
but  as  the  languages  in  the  lapse  of  years  forced  themselves  into  use, 
some  reciprocal  benefit  might  be  derived  from  the  interchange  of 
conversation  and  of  books.  The  Latin  tongue  was  certainly  diffused, 
and  though  its  modern  productions  neither  demanded  nor  merited 
notice,  those  of  higher  antiquity,  both  ecclesiastical  and  profane, 
would  command  the  attention  of  scholars ;  and  we  know  that  in  pro- 
cess of  time  many  were  honoured  with  a  Greek  version.  As  the 
Latins  were  yet  insensible  of  their  intellectual  wants,  they  viewed 
with  indifference  the  great  literary  proficiency  of  the  Greeks,  and  a 
more  auspicious  period  was  still  to  be  an  object  of  future  hope.  But 
this  period  was,  I  think,  accelerated  by  the  present  intercourse  with 
a  polished  people,  by  the  experience  of  many  social  conveniences,  by 
the  view  of  the  refinements  in  architecture  and  the  other  arts,  and 
by  the  knowledge,  however  imperfect,  which  they  acquired  of  a  lan- 
guage, the  harmony  of  whose  sounds  attested  its  excellence,  even  to 
a  barbarous  ear,  and  in  wrhich  few  could  be  ignorant  that  works  of 
immortal  renown  had  been  composed.  Add  to  this  that  many  Greek 
scholars,  who  could  no  longer  enjoy  repose  at  home,  emigrated  into 
different  regions  of  the  East  and  West,  and  thus  contributed  in  some 
degree  to  promote  the  cause  of  learning,  and  to  awaken,  perhaps,  the 
first  feelings  of  a  curiosity  which  other  events  more  fully  roused 
into  action.  It  may  then  be  allowed  that  at  least  some  benefit  was 
derived  from  the  conquest  of  Byzantium,  and  the  reigns  of  the  Latin 
princes,  during  an  interval  of  sixty  years. 

While  these  princes  occupied  the  Byzantine  throne,  some  frag- 
ments of  the  empire  remained  in  the  hands,  or  were  recovered  by 
the  valour  of  its  former  masters.  Theodore  Lascaris  erected  his 
standard  at  Nice,  in  Bithynia;  and  two  dukedoms  or  states  were 


TO  1453.]  NICETAS.  395 

formed  at  Trebizond,  and  in  Epirus,  which  became  the  general  resort 
of  the  fugitive  Greeks.  Theodore  was  soon  honoured  with  the  title 
of  emperor ;  and  in  him  and  in  his  immediate  successor,  John  Ducas 
Vataces,  Nice  could  boast  of  two  princes  as  fit  to  reign  as  any  who 
had  graced  the  throne  of  Constantinople.  Their  joint  lives  reached 
from  1204  to  1255  ;  and  under  the  hitter  prince,  whilst  no  moment 
was  lost  which  could  be  employed  for  the  recovery  of  the  empire, 
we  mav  admire  the  peaceful  measures  of  his  administration,  his  soli- 
citude "to  promote  the  education  of  youth,  and  the  revival  of  learning. 
He  was  wont  to  say  that  a  king  and  a  philosopher  are  the  two  most 
eminent  characters"of  human  society  ;  that  is,  as  he  probably  meant 
to  say,  provided  the  first  possessed  the  qualities  of  the  second.1 

Theodore  II.,  the  son  of  Vataces,  was  not  endowed  with  the 
princely  talents  of  his  father  ;  but  some  records  are  extant  of  his 
learning,  particularly  that  in  which  he  appeared  as  a  theologian. 
He  died  after  a  reign  of  three  years,  when  we  come  to  his  infant 
son,  John  Lascaris,  and  to  the  illustrious  Michael  Palaeologus,  his 
guardian  and  associate  in  the  empire,  in  the  second  year  of  whose 
reign  the  Latins  were  expelled,  and  Michael  ascended  the  throne  of 
Byzantium. 

1  It >  wever  solicitous  Vataces  may  have  been  to  promote  the  revival 
of  learning,  it  must  be  evident  that  the  unsettled  circumstances  of 
the  times  would  not  admit  much  to  be  done.     Yet,  under  all  their 
disadvantages,  the  Greeks  still  retained  a  portion  of  their  former 
spirit,  and  did  not  abandon  the  cause  of  literature.     Among  the 
historians,  we  find  Nicetas  of  Chona,  whom  I  have  often  mentioned.- 
He  was  educated  under  the  eye  of  his  brother  Michael,  who,  he  says, 
was  a  man  to  whom  no  science  was  unknown.     He  was  peculiarly 
eloquent,   and  afterwards  filled  the  metropolitan  chair  of  Athens. 
Admitted  into  the  Byzantine  court,   Nicetas  raised  himself  to  the 
honours  of  senator,  judge  of  the  veil,  and  great  logothete  :    offices  of 
which  \ve  often  read  in  the  annals  of  the  times.     He  filled  this  sta- 
tion when  Constantinople  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Latins.     His  own 
adventures  are  feelingly  described,  when  he  escaped  from  the  city 
•with  his  wife  and  family,   and  overtook  the  patriarch  riding  on  an 
as-  without  attendants,  and  almost  without  apparel.   He  then  retired 
to  Nice  with  other  fugitives.     Here  he  composed  his  Annals,  from 
the  death  of  Alexius  Comnenus,  in  1118,  to  the  year  1206.     Many 
sound  reflections  are  dispersed  through  the  work,  which  though  it  is 
not  destitute  of  classical  taste,  is  yet  marred  by  some  affectation  ; 
and,  after  the  fall  of  his  country,   the  author  exhausts  attention  by 
his  complaints,  and  inveighs  against  the  Latins  without  moderation. 
In  the  common  editions,  some  passages,  which  are  highly  curious,  arc- 
uniformly  omitted.     Other  works  came  from  the  pen  of  Nicetas.3 

on  these  reigns,  the  Histories  of  Geor.  Acropolita,  Geor.  Pacliymer, 
and  Niccjiliorus  Gregoras,  of  whom  I  shall  hereafter  spcuk. 

2  See  also,  respecting  him,  hichoell,  i.  '-JG4  ;  and  ii.  'I'll. 
»  See  Bib.  G.  L.  v.  5,  vi. 


396         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

Contemporary  with  Nicetas  was  the  chronologist  Joel,  who  has 
brought  down  his  record  to  the  same  fatal  period  :  and  after  them, 
at  no  great  distance,  came  George  Acropolite,  who  was  greatly  cele- 
brated for  his  erudition,  and  employed  in  many  offices,  tirst  at  Nice, 
and  then  at  Constantinople,  after  the  restoration  of  the  empire.  His 
Chronicle  is  particularly  valuable  from  the  genuine  account  of  events 
which  it  contains,  in  which  himself  bore  a  part,  from  1203  to  1261, 
during  the  reigns  of  the  Nicene  emperors.  But  when  we  hear  him 
described  as  a  scholar  with  whom  no  other  may  be  compared,  as 
equal  to  Aristotle  in  philosophy,  and  to  Plato  in  the  Attic  charms  of 
a  sublime  theology,  we  cannot  assent  to  the  truth  of  such  exagge- 
rated praise.1 

George  Pachymer,  another  Greek  historian,  at  the  age  of  nineteen, 
returned  with  his  countryman  to  Constantinople  ;  where,  after  some 
years  spent  in  the  acquisition  of  general  learning,  he  became  a  prin- 
cipal officer  in  the  palace  of  the  patriarch,  and  took  an  active  part  in 
the  transactions  which  were  carried  on  by  Michael  Palaeologus,  in 
order  to  effect  an  union  between  the  church  of  the  east  and  that  of 
the  west.  On  this  important  question  he  sided  with  the  opposers  of 
the  union.  Pachymer  was  also  a  great  admirer  of  the  Peripatetic 
philosophy,  on  which  he  wrote  commentaries ;  and  his  disquisitions 
are  said  to  have  been  numerous  on  other  branches  of  learning.  He 
is  best  known  by  his  History  of  the  reigns  of  Michael  and  Andro- 
nicus  Palseologus ;  the  style  of  which,  though  formed  on  the  ancient 
model,  is  censured  as  tumid,  ambiguous,  and  obscure,  yet  not  alto- 
gether void  of  elegance,  in  an  age  when  exuberance  was  deemed  a 
proof  of  knowledge.2 

A  little  before  these  men,  flourished  Theodorus  Balsamon,  patri- 
arch of  Antioch — which  see  he  never  visited,  as  it  was  then  occupied 
by  the  Latins.  He  was  a  scholar  so  extensively  acquainted  with  the 
whole  science  of  the  laws,  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  that  Greece,  though 
so  fertile  in  genius,  is  said  at  no  time  to  have  produced  a  greater 
man.  In  his  attempt,  however,  to  ascend  the  Byzantine  chair,  he 
was  outwitted  by  Isaac  Angelus.3 

During  the  temporary  translation  of  this  chair  to  Nice,  and  after 
its  return,  it  was  continued  to  be  filled  by  prelates  of  talents  and  of 
science.  Such  were  Germanus,  of  whom  many  works  are  extant ; 
Arsenius,  who  returned  with  Palaeologus  to  Constantinople,  where 
he  incurred  his  anger  by  his  pastoral  firmness  in  censuring  the 
savage  treatment  of  their  pupil,  the  young  emperor,  whom  the  tyrant 
deprived  of  his  sight,  and  John  Veccus,  the  strenuous  advocate  with 
Palaeologus  for  the  union  with  the  Latin  church,  on  which  account 
he  suffered  much  from  his  countrymen.  "  In  Greek  literature," 
says  the  historian  Nicephorus,  "  Veccus  was  not  the  first,  but  in 

1  See  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  xiii.  Bib.  G.  v.  5.  vi. 

2  Ibid.    Brncker,  Hist.  Phil.  iii. 

3  Nicet.   in  Isanco.  See  Bib.  G.  L.Y.  33,  ix.  Schoell,  i.  323.  Cellier,  xix. 


TO   1453.]       GREEK  EMPIRE  AFTER  ITS  RESTORATION.  397 

quickness  of  parts,  in  natural  eloquence,  and  in  the  science  of  theo- 
logy, compared  with,  him  other  men  were  children."1 

Nicephorus  Blemmides,  the  preceptor  of  Theodorus  Lascaris,  was 
conspicuous  in  general  learning,  as  were  many  others  whose  names 
have  come  down  to  us ;  and  I  may  here  repeat,  what  I  have  before 
noticed,  that  under  all  the  disadvantages  of  the  times,  what  very 
much  kept  alive  an  attention  to  letters  was  the  unceasing  animosity 
between  the  churches.  The  questions  which  they  discussed,  though 
apparently  of  no  great  importance,  were  connected  with  antiquity, 
and  necessitated  some  extent  of  research  and  sagacity  of  observa- 
tion ;  while  the  ambition  of  victory,  not  only  in  historical  proof  and 
logical  subtlety,  but  in  literary  composition,  instigated  the  combat- 
ants on  each  side.  Nor  was  the  contest  always  between  Greeks 
and  Latins.  The  cause  of  the  latter  was  not  unfrequently  abetted 
bv  the  former,  which  produced  a  favourable  diversion,  and  gave  new 
life  to  the  controversy.  The  patriarch  Veccus  took  this  side,  as 
did  the  eminent  scholar,  George  Metochita,  of  whom  I  shall  soon 
speak.  - 

The  recapture  of  Byzantium  did  not  put  an  end  to  all  intercourse 
with  the  Latins.  The  barons,  indeed,  and  the  principal  families, 
retired  with  their  emperor,  but  the  lower  orders  remained  who  were 
attached  to  the  country,  and  indifferent  to  the  change  of  masters. 
Policy  also  dictated  to  Palaeologus  to  encourage  the  Venetians,  the 
Genoese,  and  the  Pisans,  who  at  this  time  engrossed  the  trade  of 
Europe,  to  continue  in  the  capital,  where  the  benefit  of  their  com- 
mercial industry  had  been  long  experienced.  Their  factories  were, 
therefore,  maintained  ;  their  former  privileges  confirmed  ;  the  juris- 
diction of  their  own  magistrates  established ;  and  their  respective 
quarters  allotted  in  the  city,  and  in  the  suburb  of  Galata.  I  wish 
this  to  be  noticed  as  a  fortunate  event,  as  it  opened  a  channel  of 
perpetual  intercourse,  through  which  not  only  commerce,  but  learn- 
ing, with  its  professors,  and  the  arts  of  a  more  polished  life,  might 
find  their  way,  first  into  Italy,  and  thence  to  the  other  regions  of  the 
West. 

The  reign  of  Palaeologus  contains  little  which  is  worthy  of  record 
in  this  view  of  Grecian  letters.  He  provoked  the  censures  of  his  own 
church  by  the  cruel  treatment  of  John  Lascaris,  and  incurred  the 
displeasure  of  that  church  by  insincere  attempts  to  effect  an  union 
with  the  church  of  Rome.  He  was  justly  apprehensive  of  an  attack 
from  the  West,  particularly  from  Charles  of  Anjou,  the  powerful 
king  of  the  Sicilies ;  and  in  order  to  avert  it,  policy  dictated  that 
the  friendship  of  the  Roman  bishop,  who  was  now  the  sovereign  lord 
of  the  western  world,  should  be  conciliated  by  submission  to  the 
terms  of  his  communion.  He  and  many  prelates  of  his  church  made 
a  profession  of  submitting,  and  the  impending  storm  was  averted ; 
but  the  thin  veil  of  delusion  was  apparent  through  all  the  measures 

1  Nicepb.  Graec.  Hist.  v.  2  See  Cave,  Hist.  Lit. 


398         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

of  a  complicated  negociation;  and  on  the  death  of  Michael  in  1282, 
the  hollow  union  was  dissolved  by  unanimous  consent.  Even  the 
first  care  of  Andronicus,  his  son  and  successor,  was  to  restore  tran- 
quillity by  reversing  all  the  acts  of  his  father — in  which  he  had  him- 
self joined — and  by  re-establishing,  on  a  firmer  basis,  the  wall  of 
separation  between  the  churches. 

The  long  reign  of  Andronicus,  from  1282  to  1332,  was  a  period  of 
trouble,  and  from  the  rise  of  the  Ottoman  power,  one  of  ominous 
menace  to  the  empire.  This  prince  has  been  celebrated  as  a  model 
of  the  most  perfect  eloquence,  and  we  may  find  in  the  life  of  his 
minister,  Theodorus  Metochita,  some  facts  which  are  not  devoid  of 
literary  interest.  Even  the  historian  Nicephorus  does  not  forget  to 
produce  himself  as  a  figure  not  unworthy  of  notice ;  but  his  praise 
of  the  emperor  is  disgustingly  fulsome,  and  its  style  will,  I  fear, 
exhibit  a  specimen  of  fallen  oratory. 

Satisfied,  he  says,1  with  his  own  progress  in  oratory  and  in  philo- 
sophical researches,  and  satiated  with  astronomy  —  by  which  he 
understands  the  inquiry  after  future  events — he  resolved  to  betake 
himself  to  the  court.  He  had  understood  that  the  palace  of  Andro- 
nicus might  be  deemed,  owing  to  long  experience  and  the  exercise 
of  talents,  not  only  the  school  of  honourable  discipline  and  of  virtue, 
but  the  gymnasium  of  eloquence  and  of  erudition ;  and  that  the  con- 
versation of  the  prince,  which  was  seasoned  by  prudent  and  inge- 
nuous observations,  was  well  worthy  the  ear  of  the  learned.  He  was 
kindly  received,  and  was  at  the  time  in  his  seven  and  twentieth 
year.  On  this  occasion,  and  as  a  proof  of  his  own  talents,  he  ad- 
dressed to  the  emperor  the  discourse  which  I  mentioned  as  "  dis- 
gustingly fulsome." 

He  observes,  that  had  the  age  produced  other  men  fit  to  celebrate 
the  praises  of  Andronicus,  silence  would  to  him  have  been  a  first 
duty,  though  he  is  compelled  to  own,  that  he  alone  could  speak  fitly 
of  his  actions  who  should  possess  his  eloquence,  by  the  charms  of 
which  all  had  been  surpassed,  as  all  had  been  eclipsed  by  the  con- 
stellation of  his  virtues.  Of  these  virtues  he  selects  his  prudence, 
which  he  calls  his  wisdom,  of  which  every  one  has  heard  but  he  who 
has  lost  the  sense  of  hearing.  "  But  so  sweet  are  the  accents  of 
your  voice,  that  while  it  delights  those  who  hear  it,  it  still  follows 
them  as  they  depart,  hangs  upon  the  ear,  and  adheres  to  the  memory 
as  the  taste  of  honey  on  the  tongue.  The  groves  and  meadows,  and 
forests,  resound,  it  is  true,  in  the  season  of  spring  with  the  songs  of 
their  feathered  citizens,  and  other  places  at  other  times ;  but  all  the 
seasons  of  the  year  are  charmed  with  your  eloquence,  and  the  whole 
earth  is  its  theatre."  On  this  theme  he  dilates ;  speaks  of  Orpheus 
and  of  X estor,  of  Socrates,  of  Plato,  of  Pericles,  all  of  whom  he  out- 
did,  as  much  as  the  shout  of  Stentor  exceeded  the  shouts  of  all  other 
men.  "  The  song  of  the  Sirens,"  he  adds,  "  was  once  highly  cele- 

1  Niceph.  Greg.  Hist.  Rom.  viii. 


TO  1453.]  ANBRON1CUS    PALEOLOGUS.  399 

brated,  but  it  could  not  be  listened  to  without  danger ;  and  they 
alone  were  safe  whose  ears  were  closed  with  wax ;  but  while  you 
harangue,  we  are  so  far  from  recurring  to  this  artifice,  that  we 
lament  that  nature  did  not  make  us  all  ear.  For  what  Demosthenes 
do  you  not  excel  by  the  arrangement  and  energy  of  your  discourses  ? 
What  Platos,  by  the  extent  and  power  of  your  genius  ?  And  whom 
have  you  not  fixed  in  more  permanent  admiration  than  the  hearers 
of  Socrates  felt  in  that  Attic  age  ?  As  the  fields  are  clothed  in  the 
beautiful  variety  of  flowers,  so  is  your  speech  attired  with  the  blan- 
dishments of  persuasion,  and  the  allurements  of  wit.'' 

There  is  much  more  in  the  same  strain,  but  this  sample  may  suffice 
to  characterise  the  eloquence  of  the  age.  He  tells  us  that  his  address 
was  well  received,  and  served  as  a  first  step  to  further  honours.  But, 
if  Andronicus  really  possessed  any  share  of  these  high  accomplish- 
ments, we  may  collect  from  the  same  historian  that  they  contributed 
neither  to  the  benefit  of  the  state,  nor  to  the  peace  and  happiness  of 
his  own  family.  From  the  facility,  however,  with  which  Nicephorus 
found  admittance  into  the  palace,  and  from  the  encouragement  which 
lie  experienced,  we  may  further  collect  that  literature  was  still  ad- 
mired in  all  the  vicissitudes  of  bad  fortune,  and  that  the  throne  had 
not  withdrawn  its  patronage. 

This  patronage  was  extended  at  the  same  time  to  many  scholars 
of  great  literary  merit,  but  when  other  qualifications  promised  more 
pliancy  of  disposition  than  intellectual  attainments,  the  historian1 
observes  that  Andronicus,  like  his  predecessors,  readily  lost  sight  of 
science.  In  this  manner  one  Nipho  was  chosen  to  fill  the  patriarchal 
chair,  "  a  man  utterly  ignorant  of  profane  and  sacred  learning,  and 
who  did  not  even  know  how  to  form  the  letters  of  his  own  tongue." 
But  he  had  other  talents,  though  little  adapted  to  the  duties  of  his 
high  station.  To  Nipho,  however,  and  to  some  others  who  were 
equally  illiterate,  let  me  oppose  John  Glycys,  raised  to  the  same  see, 
a  prelate  who  was  eminent  for  learning,  and  whose  eloquence  was 
fashioned  on  the  true  Attic  model.  "For  my  own  instruction,"  says 
Ni'-cphonis.  "and  to  give  a  due  polish  to  my  diction,  I  had  sedulously 
cultivated  the  society  of  this  able  scholar,  for  I  was  peculiarly  de- 
voted to  the  art  of  oratory."  We  have  seen  what  this  oratory  was, 
and  from  that  specimen  we  may  infer  what  was  meant  by  the  "  Attic 
styl","  in  the  conception  of  Nicephorus. 

_<>ry  of  Cyprus  was  another  .scholar  who  graced  the  court  of 
Andronicus,  and  the  chair  of  Byxantium.  lie  also  was  famed  for 
eloquence.  The  historian2  observes,  that  "  by  the  ductility  of  his 
genius,  and  close  application,  he  raised  as  it  were  from  the  grave, 
and  produced  to  open  day,  the  elegant  taste  of  Grecian  literature, 
and  those  Attic  numbers  which  had  long  lain  buried  in  oblivion." 
But  he  wii.s  enviou.-  of  others'  fame,  and  treated  his  predecessor  and 
others  with  great  cruelty,  who  had  espoused  the  cause  of  the  Latins 

'    Hi -i.  Hum.  vii.  «  Ibid.  vi. 


400         OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

on  the  question  of  the  union.  He  was  finally  crushed  by  the  storm 
which  broke  on  his  own  head ;  but  he  merited  peculiar  praise,  by 
the  attention  which  he  gave  to  the  education  of  the  ecclesiastics,  and 
by  providing  the  churches  with  able  ministers. 

It  is  time  to  speak  of  Theodorus  Metochita.1  He  was  the  prin- 
cipal minister,  or  logothete,  in  the  Byzantine  court,  during  the  last 
years  of  Andronicus,  and  the  friend  who  was  nearest  to  his  heart. 
The  historian  Nicephorus  also  gloried  in  his  friendship,  which  he 
has  returned  with  no  scanty  meed  of  praise.  "  By  natural  talents," 
he  says,2  "  and  persevering  labour,  and  the  powers  of  memory,  he 
had  risen  to  the  most  elevated  point  of  science.  If  asked  what  an- 
cient sages  or  the  learned  of  modern  times  had  written  ?  his  replies 
seemed  to  be  read  from  their  works.  In  our  intercourse  with  him, 
therefore,  we  stood  not  in  need  of  books,  for  he  was  himself  a  living 
library,  an  oracle  ever  ready  to  give  responses.  I  never  heard  of  a 
scholar  that  could  be  compared  with  him.  But  when  we  reflect 
that  he  would  not  accommodate  his  style  of  oratory  to  any  ancient 
model,  that  he  despised  suavity  of  diction,  that  he  would  not  check 
the  exuberance  of  his  fancy,  it  must  be  owned  that  he  laid  himself 
open  to  censure.  Pleased  with  his  own  manner,  he  pays  no  regard 
to  our  ears,  and  sometimes  hurts  them,  as  he  who  gathers  roses  is 
lacerated  by  the  thorns.  What  his  eloquence  really  was  may  be 
understood  from  many  things  which  he  has  written.  In  this  he  was 
truly  admirable ;  that  though  engaged  in  the  most  arduous  concerns 
of  the  republic,  and  discharging  them  with  an  assiduity  which  seemed 
to  indicate  a  mind  free  from  every  other  pursuit,  he  never  wanted 
leisure  for  his  books,  and  was  as  much  devoted  to  them  in  his  even- 
ings, as  if  the  state  had  no  place  in  his  thoughts." 

The  mind  of  Theodorus,  however,  did  not  exclude  many  of  the 
vain  prejudices  of  the  age.  On  a  solemn  occasion  the  neighing  of  a 
painted  horse  on  which  the  champion  St.  George  was  represented, 
induced  the  emperor  and  his  logothete  to  look  for  its  meaning  "  in 
certain  prophetic  writings ;"  and  he  returned  from  the  consultation 
silent  and  full  of  conjectural  inquietude.  His  daughter,  in  order  to 
draw  the  mysterious  secret  from  his  bosom,  addressed  him  as  we  are 
told,  with  an  eloquence  which  was  peculiarly  her  own,  and  "  would 
have  done  honour  to  the  lips  of  Plato  or  Pythagoras."  On  the  fol- 
lowing day  the  whole  matter  was  communicated  to  the  historian. 
He  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the  logothete,  by  whom  he  had  been 
initiated,  after  a  trial  of  his  integrity,  in  the  arcana  of  astronomy, 
that  is,  the  influence  of  the  stars,  and  had  been  publicly  promised 
"  the  heritage  of  his  learning."  He  was  besides  the  tutor  of  the  son 
of  Theodorus,  and  of  his  Attic  daughter,  to  whom  he  explained  the 
passages  which  they  found  obscure  in  profane  and  sacred  authors. 
Having  learned  what  was  predicted  by  the  omens,  and  trembling  in 
every  limb,  Nicephorus  had  still  courage  to  speak ;  when  he  laboured 

i  See  Schoell,  i.  310.  "•  Hist.  Horn.  vii. 


TO  1453.]          THEODORE  METOCHITA.  401 

by  examples  drawn  from  ancient  history  to  show  that  the  language 
of  oracles  was  always  ambiguous,  and  that  they  could  not  dismay 
the  mind  of  a  philosopher.1 

Notwithstanding  the  superiority  of  his  acquirements,  the  logothete 
was  not  at  all  times  communicative.  His  disciple  therefore  again 
addressed  him.2  He  states  that  a  reciprocal  interchange  of  good 
offices  is  a  law  of  society,  by  a  compliance  with  which  many  benefits 
had  been  conferred,  and  immortal  glory  obtained.  "  But  our  age," 
he  adds,  "  lies  miserably  neglected,  while  it  can  boast  only  of  you, 
lighted  up  like  a  fire  in  the  rigour  of  winter.  Our  temples,  our 
walls,  our  groves,  our  porticoes,  bestow  a  certain  lustre  on  us,  but 
how  weak  and  transitory  !  Open  then  the  treasures  of  your  mind, 
and  save  your  name  from  oblivion  ;  prove  that  you  have  not  lived  in 
vain,  and  be  the  herald  of  your  own  fame.  Most  learned  of  all  men 
whom  the  sun  surveys,  be  to  your  country  a  Lycurgus  or  a  Solon  ; 
and  as  Athens  was  honoured  by  her  sages,  do  not  you  be  forgetful 
of  this  our  city.  Unclose  our  eyes,  point  out  to  us  the  moderator, 
and  the  wondrous  fabric  of  the  world.  Teach  us  to  what  cause  the 
prosperous  events  of  life  may  be  ascribed ;  to  the  uncontrollable 
influence  of  the  stars,  as  the  profane  have  imagined,  or  to  the  author 
of  the  universe.  On  this  I  have  long  hesitated.  You  have  not  to 
travel  as  Pythagoras  did,  from  Egypt  to  Attica,  or  as  Plato  did, 
more  than  once  to  cross  the  Ionian  sea,  and  then  to  tread  the  aca- 
demic walks  and  groves.  Your  own  house  is  your  academy.  There 
you  may  inculcate  lessons  of  virtue,  and  the  world  will  listen  to  your 
voice.  Wisdom  has  often  changed  her  station.  From  Egypt,  her 
first  abode,  she  migrated  to  the  Persians  and  Chaldeans ;  from  them 
she  turned  to  the  Athenians,  but  she  at  length  deserted  Athens,  and 
now,  like  a  bird  frightened  from  its  nest,  she  wanders,  uncertain 
where  to  fix.  Whether  she  will  settle  with  us,  or  take  her  last  flight 
to  Heaven,  depends  upon  you." 

Many  universities  were  already  opened  in  the  West ;  some  scholars 
had  emigrated  from  Greece,  Dante  had  lived  in  Italy,  and  in  Italy 
Petrarea  and  Boccaccio  were  soon  to  welcome  wisdom,  that  is,  litera- 
ture and  the  arts,  back  to  those  seats  which  she  had  formerly  loved 
as  she  did  Athens,  and  where  her  votaries  were  more  numerous 
than  had  ever  frequented  her  lessons  in  the  schools  of  Byzantium. 

At'tt-r  many  years  of  ruinous  contest  with  his  grandson  of  the 
same  name,  Andronicus  abdicated  the  throne,  and  died  in  a  cell,  in 
1332 ;  and  his  minister  Theodorus.  having  experienced  the  usual 
treatment  of  a  fallen  favourite,  survived  his  master  only  thirty  days.3 

The  reign  of  the  younger  Andronicus,  from  the  death  of  his  grand- 
sire,  comprised  only  nine  years,  when  he  left  the  throne  to  his  infant 
son  John  Palaeologus,  appointing  by  his  last  testament  John  Canta- 
cuzenus  to  be  his  guardian,  and  the  regent  of  the  empire.  Canta- 

'   Hist.  Horn.  viii.  2  jfoid, 

3  Niceph.  Greg.  Hist.  Rom.  i. 

J>  D 


402       OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.     [>.D.  500 

cuzenus  was  nobly  descended,  had  been  the  firm  friend  of  the  late 
emperor  through  all  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune  ;  and  whether  talents, 
literary  attainments,  or  even  virtue,  were  considered,  might  justly 
be  regarded  as  the  first  and  most  deserving  of  the  Greeks.  Had  he 
experienced,  as  his  station  demanded,  a  suitable  return  of  obedience, 
he  would  doubtless  have  acted  with  a  pure  and  zealous  fidelity  in  the 
service  of  his  pupil.  But  by  the  private  machinations  and  open 
attacks  of  the  empress  mother,  the  great  admiral  Apaucus,  and  the 
patriarch,  he  was  driven  in  his  own  defence  reluctantly  to  draw  the 
sword  and  to  assume  the  purple,  which  after  six  years  of  civil  discord 
and  varied  success  he  deserved  to  wear.  He  wore  it,  however,  with- 
out enjoying  happiness ;  and  when  John  Palaeologus,  impatient  of  all 
restraint,  claimed  his  birthright  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  faction, 
Cantacuzenus,  if  we  may  believe  his  own  declaration,  descended 
from  the  throne  in  submissive  deference  to  the  voice  of  religion  and 
of  reason,  and  voluntarily  embraced  the  monastic  life.1  This  was  in 
the  year  1355. 

We  must  now  view  him  in  the  cells  of  Constantinople  and  Mount 
Athos,  occupied  in  the  offices  of  piety,  or  devoting  his  days  to 
literary  pursuits.  Here  he  wrote  his  History,  or  the  Memoirs  of 
his  own  times,  comprising  a  space  of  nearly  forty  years,  from  the 
revolt  of  the  younger  Andronicus,  in  1320,  to  his  own  abdication  of 
the  empire.  Could  we  suppose  him  free  from  prepossessions  in  the 
retired  meditations  of  the  cloister,  a  story,  in  the  scenes  of  which  he 
was  a  principal  actor,  would  be  calculated  to  inspire  the  most  lively 
interest.  But  it  is  hardly  possible  not  to  harbour  suspicions  of  his 
candour  and  his  truth.  The  work  is  eloquent,  but  diffuse ;  and 
perhaps  too  eloquent  to  be  sincere.  It  is  the  apology,  it  has  been 
said,8  of  the  life  of  an  ambitious  statesman,  not  penetrating  to  the 
bottom  of  things,  and  laying  open  real  councils,  characters,  and 
designs,  but  glancing  lightly  over  the  surface,  and  varnishing  every 
transaction  with  his  own  praises  and  those  of  his  friends.  The  mo- 
tives of  these  men,  continues  the  same  critic,  are  always  pure  ;  their 
ends  always  legitimate  ;  they  conspire  and  rebel  without  any  views 
of  interest,  and  the  violence  which  they  inflict  or  suffer  is  celebrated 
as  the  spontaneous  effect  of  reason  and  of  virtue.  The  speeches, 
often  prolix,  and  seldom  interesting  —  which  the  historian  puts 
into  his  own  mouth,  or  into  that  of  others  —  may  be  deemed  a 
copy  of  the  ancient  manner,  but  no  proof  of  just  taste.  Nice- 
phorus  Gregoras  is  chargeable  with  the  same  affectation;  but 
where  this  writer  seems  to  have  spoken  fairly  of  Cantacuzenus,  in 
abetting  the  designs  of  the  younger  Andronicus  against  the  govern- 
ment of  his  grandfather,  the  holy  recluse  complains  of  the  statement 
as  a  false  and  malicious  representation  of  his  conduct.  Let  it  then 
be  admitted,  after  the  most  impartial  enumeration,  that  the  work  of 
Cantacuzenus  is  covered  with  many  blemishes ;  still,  when  it  is  con- 

1  Joan.  Cantac.  Hist.  iv.  -  Hist,  of  the  Decline,  &c.  vi. 


TO   1 453.]  A  CURIOUS  CONTROVERSY.  403 

sidered  as  the  production  of  a  man  who  had  worn  the  purple,  who 
was  born  in  the  highest  circles  of  life,  educated  in  dissipation, 
practised  in  intrigue,  and  inured  to  arms — a  specimen  of  rarer 
talents  will  not  easily  be  adduced ;  while  it  stands  a  noble  monu- 
ment of  taste,1  in  the  last  decline  of  Grecian  literature.2 

As  I  have  again  mentioned  Nicephorus,  it  may  be  proper  to 
observe,  that  his  life  seems  to  have  been  protracted  to  a  late  period, 
and  terminated  in  troubles.  Though  a  layman,  he  was  no  stranger  to 
theological  studies ;  and  the  opinion  which  others  expressed  of  his 
talents  seems  to  have  aggravated  the  feeling  of  vanity,  and  to  have 
inspired  a  love  of  disputation.  His  History,  from  the  taking  of 
Constantinople  by  the  Latins,  in  1204,  to  the  death  of  the  younger 
Andronicus,  in  1341,  contains  much  interesting  matter,  interspersed 
with  j nst  reflections,  diversified  by  foreign  facts,  and  recommended 
by  the  effusions  of  an  affectionate  regard  for  those  whose  party  he 
had  espoused.  But  we  have  too  often  reason  to  reproach  him  with 
an  inordinate  love  of  his  own  oratory,  which  breaks  the  continuity 
of  the  narrative,  and  tires  by  an  inane  prolixity.  His  other  works, 
biblical,  dogmatical,  devotional,  philosophical,  poetical,  and  episto- 
lary, if  drawn  from  the  dust  in  which  most  of  them  still  repose, 
would  fill  many  volumes  ;3  on  which  the  learned  Fabricius,  address- 
ing his  reader,  observes  :  "  I  beseech  you,  peruse  the  whole  list, 
however  long.  In  it  you  may  find  some  things  pleasing  by  their 
subjects ;  of  others  you  may  lament  the  loss,  and  you  may  wish 
that  others  were  brought  to  light.  You  may  not  perhaps 'grieve 
that  some  have  perished;  as  to  myself,  I  have  not  unfrequently 
derived  pleasure  from  the  sight  of  such  catalogues,  when  I  observed, 
that  my  shelves  were  not  laden  with  such  useless,  if  not  pernicious 
lumber."4 

Nicephorus  mentions  a  singular  controversy,  in  which  Cantacu- 
zenus  did  not  disdain,  even  when  emperor,  to  take  a  part.  This 
evinces  how  prone  the  Grecian  mind  was  to  indulge  itself  in  meta- 
physical subtleties.  It  was  not  amongst  them  a  new  fancy,  that 
a  celestial  light  was  concealed  in  the  deepest  retirements  of  the  soul, 
which  might  be  discovered  by  meditation  and  keeping  the  eyes 
immoveably  fixed  on  the  middle  region  of  the  belly,  and  that  thence 
an  ineffable  delight  might  be  derived.  If  asked,  what  kind  of  light 
tliis  was?  they  replied,  that  it  was  the  glory  of  God,  or  that 
celestial  radiance  which  surrounded  Christ  during  his  transfigura- 
tion on  Mount  Thabor.  Barlaam,  a  Calabrian  monk,  passing  through 
Greece,  and  hearing  of  this  mystic  extravagance,  treated  it  as 
a  heresy,  imposing  on  its  abetters  the  opprobrious  appellation  of 
onfaXo^vxoi,  or  Novelists;  but  he  was  opposed  by  Gregory  Palamas, 
a  man  of  no  mean  talents,  who,  having  spent  many  years  in  the 

1  See  Bib.  G.  v.  f»,  vi. 

2  See  Schoell,  i.  279 :  ii.  229 ;  Lebeau,  xxvi.  136 

»  See  Schoell,  i.  201,  and  ii.  228;  Lebeau,  xxv.  «  Bib.  G.  v.  5,  vi. 

DD2 


404        OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

monastery  of  Mount  Athos,  was  easily  persuaded  to  espouse  an 
opinion  in  which  he  had  been  himself  instructed,  and  which  was 
peculiarly  grateful  to  the  monks  of  that  place.1  The  'Grecian  mind 
was  soon  universally  engaged ;  and  a  synod  was  assembled  on  the 
subject  at  Constantinople,  in  which  the  younger  Andronicus  presided, 
which  pronounced  in  favour  of  Palamas  and  the  monks.  Nicephorus 
laments,  that  he  was  prevented  by  indisposition  from  being  present 
at  this  meeting.  Barlaam,  thus  worsted,  left  Greece,  and  returned 
to  Italy :  but  the  controversy  was  not  closed,  and  other  champions 
came  forward.  The  dispute  now  turned  upon  the  light  seen  on 
Mount  Thabor,  and  on  the  nature  and  residence  of  the  Deity.  The 
followers  of  Palamas  maintained,  that  the  Supreme  Being  was  en- 
circled by  an  eternal  light,  distinct  from  his  essence,  with  a  view  of 
which  the  three  disciples  were  favoured ;  whilst  the  Barlaamites,  on 
the  contrary,  affirmed  that  the  properties  of  the  Deity  were  not 
different  from  his  nature  or  essence,  and  that  no  such  light  could  be 
admitted.  The  court  and  the  city  continued  to  be  involved.  Other 
assemblies  were  therefore  convened,  the  most  remarkable  of  which 
was  held  in  the  year  1351,  in  which  the  theologian  Cantacuzenus 
presided,  when  the  Barlaamites  received  so  fatal  a  blow,  that  they 
were  forced  to  yield,  and  leave  the  victory  to  Palamas.'-' 

At  this  moment  a  civil  war  raged  in  the  empire,  but  it  could  not 
check  the  war  of  words ;  while  the  rising  sun  of  every  day  might  be 
said  to  witness  the  progress  of  the  Ottoman  arms,  and  some  new 
member  was  severed  from  the  sapless  trunk.  Nice,  and  Nicomedia, 
with  the  whole  province  of  Bithynia,  as  far  as  the  shores  of  the 
Bosphorus  and  Hellespont,  had  submitted ;  and  all  the  territory  of 
Asia  Minor  soon  acknowledged  the  Moslem  yoke.  The  monuments 
of  classical  and  Christian  antiquity  which  had  ornamented  the  cities 
of  Ephesus,  Laodicea,  Sardis,  and  Pergamus,  were  trampled  in  the 
dust ;  and  that  era  of  desolation  opened,  the  fatal  effects  of  which 
the  traveller  laments,  as  he  moves  over  the  ruins  of  cities  which  were 
once  the  scenes  of  splendour  and  festivity.  Before  the  fourteenth 
century  had  completed  half  its  course,  parties  of  the  same  Turks 
were  invited  into  Europe  during  the  intestine  quarrels  of  the  throne ; 
and  in  the  reign  of  Cantacuzenus,  Thrace  beheld  the  establishment 
of  a  Turkish  colony.  When  John  Palaeologus,  in  1355,  found  him- 
self sole  master  of  the  empire,  it  consisted  only  of  a  space  of  ground 
between  the  Propontis  and  the  Euxine,  of  about  fifty  miles  in  length 
and  thirty  in  breadth,  with  the  city  of  Byzantium  ! 

From  this  time  no  contemporary  historian  details  the  events  of 
the  remaining  thirty-six  years  of  PalEeologus,  a  period  of  hopeless 
disaster,  during  which  we  look  in  vain  for  any  vestiges  of  science  or 
learning,  though  some  studies  might  probably  be  prosecuted  in  a 
nation  which  was  habitually  studious.  In  the  meantime,  the  Otto- 

i  Schoell,  ii.  228. 

*  Nicepli.  Greg.  Hist.  xi. ;  Mosheim,  iii. ;  also  Bib.  G.  v.  43,  44,  x. 


TO  1453.]  GREEK  ANTHOLOGIES.  405 

mans,  under  Amurath  I.  and  then  under  his  son,  the  sultan  Bajazet, 
extended  their  European  conquests  ;  the  Byzantine  throne  was  dis- 
graced by  civil  discord ;  the  capital  was  hemmed  in  by  the  vicinity 
of  hostile  armies ;  and  its  final  overthrow  was  postponed  only  by  the 
opportune  intervention  of  the  mighty  Tamerlane. 

But  let  me  interpose  a  more  pleasing  subject.  In  the  cells  of  a 
convent  in  Constantinople  lived  a  recluse,  named  Maximus  Planudes, 
a  man  of  letters,  and  well  versed  in  his  own  and  in  the  Latin  tongue.1 
In  the  former  he  wrote  many  tracts  on  religious  and  miscellaneous 
subjects  ;  and  he  translated  from  the  Latin  the  Commentaries  of 
Csesar,  the  Consolation  of  Boethius,  and  some  treatises  of  St.  Augus- 
tin.  I  remarked,  that,  from  the  residence  of  the  Latins  in  the  East, 
their  language  was  likely  to  be  diffused,  and  their  more  ancient  pro- 
ductions, ecclesiastical  and  profane,  gradually  to  command  the 
attention  of  scholars.  But  other  works,  beside  those  of  a]  graver 
cast,  found  an  admirer  in  Planudes.  He  translated  the  Metamor- 
phoses of  Ovid  into  Greek  prose  ;  and  we  may  be  allowed  to  think, 
that  the  more  sombre  musings  of  the  cloister  would  be  sometimes 
interrupted  by  the  playful  effusions  of  the  Roman  poet.  The  trans- 
lator, it  is  plain,  could  not  be  a  gloomy  monk ;  and  we  have  a  fur- 
ther proof  of  his  temper,  in  the  compilation  of  another  work.  This 
was  entitled,  Anthologia,  or  a  Collection  of  Epigrams  and  other  short 
fugitive  pieces. 

Of  these  flowers  of  the  Grecian  muse  there  had  been  prior  collec- 
tions ;  and  some,  as  those  of  Meleager  and  Philip  of  Thessalonica,  of 
a  very  ancient  date.  To  them,  about  the  time  of  Justinian,  suc- 
ceeded Agathias,  a  citizen  of  Constantinople,  who  was  followed,  but 
after  a  long  interval,  by  Maximus  Planudes.  These  various  collec- 
tions, or  garlands  of  flowers,  are  extant ;  from  which  the  curious 
critic,  as  from  more  voluminous  productions,  has  been  enabled  to 
pronounce  on  the  more  or  less  classical  taste  and  character  of  the 
age  by  which  they  were  produced.  Simplicity  and  purity  of  diction, 
combined  with  elegance,  are  conspicuous  in  Meleager  and^  in  Philip 
— the  last  of  whom  was  coeval  with  Augustus  Caesar : — there  is 
more  labour,  more  conceit,  more  pomp  of  expression  in  Agathias ; 
and  equal,  or  perhaps  more  blemishes,  in  Planudes ;  but  associated 
with  a  reserve  which  does  him  honour,  and  with  a  cautious  rejection 
of  what  was  immoral  and  obscene.  Of  him,  however,  it  has  rather 
severely  been  remarked,  that  he  raked  together  the  loose  miscellanies 
and  scattered  fragments  of  his  time,  not  aware  that,  by  his  exertions, 
he  was  bequeathing  and  perpetuating  to  succeeding  ages  the  figure 
of  his  country,  enfeebled,  helpless,  exhausted,  and  nearly  sunk  into 
dotage.  Still  it  is  in  the  selection  alone,  unless  when  their  own 
muse  speaks,  that  such  writers  may  be  censured.  The  age  must 
answer  for  the  style  ;  but  they  who  are  acquainted  with  the  Greek 
Anthologies  will,  I  think,  admit  that  they  furnished  exquisite  beau- 

»  Schoell,  L49;  ii.  2'2!». 


406        OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

ties  in  every  age.1  They  relate,  besides,  to  subjects  that  will  be 
interesting  as  long  as  youth  and  gaiety  delight ;  as  long  as  wine  and 
flowers  and  beaut}r  captivate,  or  the  contrary  ideas  of  old  age  and 
death,  of  sickness,  banishment,  neglected  love,  or  forsaken  friendship, 
can  excite  a  pleasing  sorrow,  or  impress  a  tender  melancholy. 

On  the  death  of  Palaeologus  in  1391,  his  son  Manuel  was  in  pos- 
session of  the  throne,  a  prince  whose  filial  piety  is  recorded,  and 
whose  name  also  is  on  the  list  of  authors,  on  account  of  some  small 
tracts  which  remain,  one  of  which,  addressed  to  his  son,  treats  of  the 
"  Study  of  the  polite  Arts."  2  This  son  was  John  Palaeologus,  who 
succeeded  to  his  father  in  1425,  of  whom,  and  of  his  immediate  pre- 
decessors, it  has  been  feelingly  remarked,  that  the  histories  of  their 
lives  are  like  the  words  of  dying  men,  interrupted  and  imperfect,  as 
if  they  sympathised  with  the  condition  of  their  agonising  country. 

In  the  preceding  centuries,  when  danger  threatened  the  empire, 
it  had  been  a  favourite  measure  with  its  rulers  to  propose  terms  of 
union  with  the  Roman  church  ;  the  prelude  to  which  they  as  regu- 
larly proposed  should  be  the  succour  of  a  powerful  army.  The 
friendly  or  hostile  aspect,  therefore,  of  the  Greek  emperors  towards 
the  pope  and  the  Latins  might,  it  has  been  ingeniously  observed,  be 
considered  as  the  thermometer  of  their  prosperity  or  distress.  Within 
the  last  hundred  years,  the  younger  Andronicus  and  Cantacuzenus 
had  in  vain  entered  into  a  negotiation  on  this  subject :  John  Palaeo- 
logus had  first  entered  into  a  secret  treaty ;  and  when  that  was 
inefficient,  he  himself  visited  the  Roman  court,  as  a  suppliant, 
pledged  himself  to  the  belief  of  its  doctrines,  implored  aid  against 
the  common  enemy  of  the  Christian  name,  and  returned  without 
effecting  the  object  of  his  journey.  Thirty  years  after  his  return, 
his  son  Manuel  solicited  the  Latin  powers,  and  passed  also  in  per- 
son into  Italy,  into  France,  and  England,  everywhere  honoured, 
pitied,  and  praised,  when,  shaping  his  course  back  through  Germany, 
he  reached  his  capital  with  the  conviction  of  experience,  that  the 
European  kingdoms  were  as  little  disposed  as,  from  circumstances, 
they  were  able,  effectually  to  contribute  to  his  relief.  In  these  suc- 
cessive measures — in  all  of  which  the  point  of  ecclesiastical  union 
had  apparently  some  share — there  was  no  sincerity  on  the  side  of 
the  court  and  church  of  Constantinople. 

But  when  John  Palseologus,  the  second  of  the  name,  succeeded  to 
the  throne  in  1425,  he  listened,  it  should  seem,  with  some  sincerity, 
to  the  proposal  of  meeting  the  pope  in  a  general  council,  and  of 
terminating  the  long  agitated  question.  If  effectual  succours  could 
not  now  be  obtained  from  the  AVest,  it  was  evident  that  the  throne 
of  Byzantium  must  fall.  A  negotiation  was  opened ;  the  fathers, 
who  were  assembled  at  Basil,  and  who  had  quarrelled  with  Eugenius 
IV.,  styling  themselves  the  representatives  and  judges  of  the  catholic 
church,  pressed  Palseologus  to  join  their  meeting.  On  his  side, 

1  See  Bib.  G.  iii.  28.  ii.  2  Bib.  G.  v.  45.  x. 


TO  1453.]   COUNCIL  OF  FERRARA  AND  FLORENCE.        407 

Eugenius  was  not  less  active,  and  his  invitation  and  offers  were  con- 
veyed in  language  more  conciliatory  and  respectful.  The  emperor 
hesitated,  but  finally  took  his  resolution,  and  embarked  on  board  the 
Roman  gallies  with  a  numerous  retinue.  He  was  accompanied  by 
Joseph,  the  Byzantine  patriarch,  with  his  proper  officers ; — twenty- 
one  prelates  of  the  first  rank,  of  whom  some  represented  the  bishops 
of  other  sees,  and  three,  also,  were  vicars  of  the  patriarchal  chairs  of 
Jerusalem,  Alexandria,  and  Antioch ;  monks  and  men  of  learning, 
who  held  various  offices  about  the  person  of  the  emperor  or  in  the 
church,  who  were  designed  to  display  the  sanctity  and  the  science  of 
that  church  and  of  their  country. 

What  was  the  precise  number  of  persons  convened  for  this  solemn 
occasion,  does  not  appear ;  but  from  the  names  of  many  that  are 
recorded,  and  from  the  conviction  felt  by  the  Greeks  that  they  should 
be  greatly  out-numbered  in  a  Latin  assembly,  we  may  conclude  that 
they  would  be  careful,  as  far  as  their  attendance  could  be  procured, 
not  to  omit  any  whose  talents  or  attainments  might  ensure,  if  not  a 
final  victory,  at  least  some  temporary  triumph  to  their  cause.  We 
may  then  safely  affirm,  that  the  Roman  gallies  were  freighted  with 
the  living  literature  of  Greece. 

These  gallies  first  anchored  at  Venice,  and  thence  the  strangers 
proceeded  to  Ferrara,  where  the  pontiff  was,  and  where,  after  a 
delay  of  six  months,  the  council  was  opened  in  the  month  of  October, 
1438. 

Four  principal  questions  had  been  agitated  between  the  two 
churches  :  1.  The  use  of  leavened  or  unleavened  bread  in  the  sacri- 
fice of  the  altar.  2.  The  nature  of  purgatory.  3.  The  procession 
of  the  holy  Spirit,  and  the  addition  of  the  Latins  to  the  creed,  of 
the  words  filtoque.  4.  The  supremacy  of  the  Roman  bishop.  The 
two  last  points  were  deemed  the  most  important ;  and  though  the 
Greeks  hail  for  a  long  time  been  little  inclined  to  admit  the  absolute 
primacy  of  the  Roman  see,  it  was  on  the  points  of  the  third  article 
that  the  minds  of  the  Eastern  churches  were  more  immoveably  fixed. 
Ten  champions  on  each  side  were  chosen  to  manage  the  debates ; 
and  in  the  various  conferences  and  discussions  which  ensued,  it  is 
not  easy  ti  >  decide  by  whom  the  greatest  acuteness,  address,  learning, 
or  eloquence  was  displayed.  Bessarion,  the  metropolitan  of  Nice, 
and  Mark  of  Ephesus,  were  the  principal  Greek  speakers  ;  the  first, 
deeply  versed  in  ecclesiastical  science,  and  powerfully  impressive, 
but  conciliating  and  ever  master  of  himself:  the  latter,  equal,  per- 
haps, in  learning,  but  froward,  untractable,  contentious,  and  skilled 
in  the  management  of  offensive  war.1  After  sixteen  sessions,  many 
of  which  were  passed  in  warm  debates,  in  which  little  advance 
towards  pacification  was  made,  the  synod  was  translated  to  Flo- 
rence. 

Here,  in  the  first  session,  John   Palaeologus  entered  into    some 

1   Schoell,  i.  :J:!0;  ii.  gftl. 


408        OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

discussion  with  the  celebrated  Roman  cardinal,  Julian  Caeserini ; 
after  which  the  debates  on  the  procession  of  the  Divine  Spirit  were 
resumed,  and  continued  with  much  vehemence.  But  was  concord 
to  arise  from  litigation  ?  The  subject  was  exhausted  ;  the  resources 
only  of  the  combatants  in  attack  or  defence  were  inexhaustible,  and 
the  return  of  the  bishops  to  their  churches  and  of  the  emperor  to 
his  capital  would  no  longer  be  delayed.  "  We  will  dispute  no 
longer,"  observed  the  Greeks,  in  a  deputation  to  their  adversaries ; 
"  disputation  generates  only  strife ;  abundant  answers  are  ever 
ready  to  what  we  advance,  and  while  we  listen  to  you,  we  perceive 
that  there  can  be  no  end  of  speaking.  Let  some  other  means  of 
union  be  devised."  In  an  elaborate  and  impressive  address  to  his 
brethren,  Bessarion  of  Nice  urged  the  necessity  of  union,  if  they 
would  rescue  themselves,  their  religion,  and  their  country,  from 
inevitable  ruin.  Other  conferences  were  held,  professions  of  faith 
were  presented  and  mutually  rejected ;  but  no  expedient  which  was 
devised  proved  successful,  when  the  emperor,  impatient  of  further 
delay,  proposed  that  they  should  come  to  a  peremptory  decision. 
The  Greeks  severally  gave  their  opinions,  which,  as  usual,  were 
not  unanimous;  but  they  finally  agreed,  with  the  exceptions  of 
Mark  of  Ephesus  and  Sophronius  of  Anchiala,  that  the  doctrine  of 
the  Latins  on  the  procession  of  the  Divine  Spirit  might  be  admitted, 
and  the  union  established. 

In  this  stage  of  the  business  Palaeologus  judged  it  prudent  not  to 
lose  the  favourable  moment,  and  to  treat  with  his  holiness  on  the 
measure  of  granting  succour.  A  negotiation  was  opened,  and 
Eugenius  agreed,  that — 1.  the  pope  should  furnish  the  Greeks  with 
ships  and  bear  the  expenses  of  their  return ;  2,  that  he  should  an- 
nually ;  maintain  three  hundred  soldiers  and  two  gallies  to  guard  the 
city  of  Constantinople  ;  3,  that  the  gallies  which  conveyed  pilgrims 
to  Jerusalem  should  sail  to  Constantinople ;  4,  that  when  the 
emperor  had  occasion  for  twenty  gallies  for  six  months,  or  of  ten  for 
a  year,  the  Roman  bishop  should  supply  them  ;  5,  if  land  forces 
were  wanted,  that  the  latter  should  earnestly  solicit  the  Christian 
princes  to  march  to  the  relief  of  Byzantium. 

The  great  point  of  controversy  was  settled ;  but  some  difficulties 
remained,  of  which  the  principal  was  the  question  of  the  Roman 
primacy.  On  this,  however,  they  finally  agreed ;  and  the  Act  of 
Union  being  committed  to  writing,  it  was  signed  on  the  5th  of  July, 
1439,  by  the  emperor,  the  Greeks,  and  by  the  Latin  members.  Mark 
of  Ephesus  alone  remained  unshaken.1 

If  the  calculations  of  Palaeologus  on  the  success  of  the  union  were 
very  sanguine,  he  must  have  been  miserably  disappointed  when  the 
Venetian  gallies,  on  board  of  which  he  and  his  Greek  prelates 
returned,  touched  the  Byzantine  shore.  Murmurs  and  dissatisfac- 
tion were  everywhere  perceived ;  the  subscribers  were  treated  as 

1  See  the  Acts  of  the  Florentine  Syuoi.     Con.  Geu.  viii. 


TO  1453.]  LEARNED    GREEKS    IN    ITALY.  409 

men  who  had  sacrificed  their  conscience  and  the  honour  of  their 
ancient  faith  to  the  lure  of  worldly  interest ;  and  it  soon  appeared 
that  even  that  was  a  baseless  fabric,  as  few  among  them  had  the 
resolution  to  justify  their  own  work  or  to  defend  the  principles  of 
the  union.  Mark  of  Ephesus  alone  was  received  as  the  champion  of 
orthodoxy ;  and  it  was  not  long,  though  the  emperor  stood  farm  to 
the  union,  before  the  greater  part  of  the  unionists  withdrew  their 
names  from  the  act,  and  with  an  increased  zeal  abetted  the  former 
schism.  Such  was  the  state  of  things  when  Palaeologus  died,  in  the 
year  1448,  leaving  the  vain  shadow  of  an  empire,  but  the  sad  reality 
of  peril  and  of  care  to  his  brother  Constantine. 

I  have  briefly  stated  the  leading  incidents  of  this  transaction 
because  it  was  intimately  connected  with  the  interests  of  letters,  and 
because,  as  I  observed,  whoever  at  the  time  among  the  Greeks  possessed 
the  reputation  of  learning  was  selected  to  attend  the  deputation.  The 
talents  which  the  speakers  displayed  were'certainly  eminent,  and  their 
cause  in  some  points  was  tenable  ;  but  the  determination  of  the  em- 
peror to  effect  the  union  from  motives  of  the  most  urgent  policy,  the 
despondency  of  the  Greeks  when  they  thought  of  their  falling  country, 
the  defection  of  the  learned  Bessarion  when  his  aid  was  most  wanted, 
and  the  acute  reasoning  of  the  adverse  party,  whom  the  long  esta- 
blished discipline  of  their  schools  had  rendered  adepts  in  the  art  of 
disputation,  ensured  to  the  Latins,  from  the  first  opening  of  the 
synod,  a  certainty  of  victory. 

i  have  already  spoken  of  Bessarion,  who  remained  behind  or  soon 
returned  to  Italy.  Amongst  the  others,  the  most  signal  were  Mark 
of  Ephesus,  who  has  been  sufficiently  noticed ;  the  Russian  metro- 
politan Isidore,  who,  with  Bessarion,  went  over  to  the  Latins ;  Gre- 
gorias  Melissenus,  the  confessor  of  Palaeologus,  and  a  great  promoter 
of  the  union ;  Georgius  Scholarius,  called  also  Gennadius,  a  man 
who  was  esteemed  by  some  as  "  the  most  learned  of  the  Greeks ;"' 
Georgius  Gemistus,"  a  Platonic  philosopher,  in  the  synod  opposed  to 
the  Latin  scholastics,  and  of  whom  even  Bessarion  said,  "  that 
he  was  an  honour  to  his  country,  and  would  continue  to  be  its 
ornament ;"  Sylvester  Syropulus,  the  chief  attendant  on  the  Byzan- 
tine patriarch,  who  strenuously  defended  the  cause  of  his  church, 
but  was  prevailed  upon  to  sign" the  union,  and  who  afterwards  com- 
piled the  History  of  the  Council.3 

As  these  men  were  really  famed  for  learning,  though  they  might 
give  way  to  the  Latins  on  the  particular  points  in  dispute,  and  as 
their  stay  in  Italy  was  little  short  of  two  years,  the  incident  would 
naturally  tend  to  diffuse  a  more  general  knowledge  of  the  Greek 
language,  and  to  recommend  the  attainments  of  the  strangers  to  imi- 
tation. We  know  that  the  mind  of  the  Italians  had  already  been 
carefully  prepared,  and  that  curiosity  was  everywhere  alive.  The 

1  See  Bib.  G.  v.  4-3,  x.  2  Ibid.  7.J'J. 

3  See  Hist.  Literal,  xv. ;  Syn.  Florent.  Con.  viii. 


410        OF  THE  LEARNING  OF  THE  GREEKS.    [A.D.  500 

friend  to  Christian  peace  may  therefore  lament,  that  the  fruits  of  the 
Florentine  union  were  so  transient ;  but  a  friend  to  letters,  when  he 
contemplates  the  benefits  which  were  derived  from  the  synod  in  the 
reviving  state  of  intellectual  curiosity  in  the  West,  will  rejoice  that  it 
was  held. 

After  the  departure  of  the  Greeks,  Eugenius  had  not  been  un- 
mindful of  his  engagements,  and  a  crusade  was  formed  against  the 
Turks,  which,  after  some  success,  was  calamitously  terminated  by 
the  battle  of  Warna.  In  1451,  Mahomet  II.,  the  son  of  the  second 
Amurath,  ascended  the  Ottoman  throne;  in  1453,  Constantinople 
was  besieged  ;  and,  after  fifty -three  days,  was  taken  by  storm  on  the 
29th  of  May,  the  emperor  Constantine  having  fallen  in  the  breach. 
In  the  devastation  which  ensued  we  cannot  but  deplore,  amidst  other 
losses,  the  destruction  of  many  monuments  of  art,  and  the  dispersion 
of  libraries.  One  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  manuscripts  are  said 
to  have  disappeared ;  but  of  the  classic  treasures  of  Greece  an  inesti- 
mable portion  had  already  been  deposited  in  Italy,  and  the  art  of 
printing  had  been  invented.  On  the  evening  of  the  day  of  the  cap- 
ture, the  sultan  entered  the  imperial  city  in  triumph  ;  viewed  its 
still  remaining  monuments,  and  proceeded  to  establish  the  forms  of  a 
new  government,  and  the  rites  of  the  Moslem  worship. 

Three  Greek  historians,  who  have  recorded  the  more  recent  events 
of  the  empire,  Michael  Ducas,1  Laonicus  Chalcocondyles,  and  Geor- 
gius  Phranea,2  survived  its  fall.  Of  Ducas  we  know  little  till  after 
the  ruin  of  his  country,  when  he  withdrew  to  the  island  of  Lesbos, 
and  there  served  its  prince,  who  was  a  Christian  tributary  of  the 
Turkish  sultan.  His  Byzantine  History  begins  with  the  year  1341, 
and  comes  down  to  1462,  when  Lesbos  also  was  captured  by  the 
Turks.3  The  work  of  Chalcocondyles  comprises,  in  ten  books,  the 
Greek  and  Turkish  history  from  1300  to  1463.  He  was  an  Athe- 
nian ;  but  nothing  is  known  of  his  life  and  character.4  From  his 
early  youth  Phranea  was  employed  in  the  service  of  the  state  and 
palace.  His  legations  were  numerous,  his  military  commands  con- 
spicuous ;  and  he  was  in  the  highest  favour  with  his  last  master, 
Constantine,  when,  after  his  death,  which  he  witnessed,  and  the  fall 
of  the  imperial  city,  he  was  carried  into  captivity  and  sold  as  a  slave. 
On  the  recovery  of  his  liberty  he  joined  the  despot  of  Peloponnesus, 
Thomas,  the  brother  of  Constantine,  whom  he  served,  till  that  country 
also  was  subdued.  He  then  bade  a  last  farewell  to  Greece,  revisited 
many  cities  of  Italy,  and  finally  rested  in  the  island  of  Corcyra, 
where  he  took  the  monastic  habit,  and  wrote  his  History.  It  relates, 
in  four  books,  from  1260  to  1477,  the  events  of  the  Byzantine  state, 
to  the  melancholy  catastrophe  of  which  he  was  an  eye  witness.5 

i  Schoell,  i.  280.,  calls  him  John  Ducas.  2  See  Schoell,  i.  !ioO. 

3  See  Hist.  Liter,  xv. ;   also  Bib.  G.  v.  5,  vi. 

4  Bib.  G.  ibid.     Schoell,  i.  281,  calls  him  Phranzes,  or  Phranza. 
4  See  Bib.  G.  v.  5,  vi. 


TO  1453.]  STATE  OF  THE  GREEK  LANGUAGE.  411 

But  though  Greece,  or  rather  its  capital,  Byzantium,  could  to  its 
latest  period  boast  of  literature  and  of  learned  men,  had  not  its  lan- 
guage been  signally  corrupted  by  the  innovating  hand  of  time,  and 
the  operations  of  war  and  commerce  ?  It  is  agreed  that  many  words 
of  foreign  origin  had  been  admitted  into  the  national  dialect,  but 
that  a  purer  idiom  was  spoken  in  the  court,  and  taught  in  the  schools. 
A  learned  Italian,  who  had  long  resided  at  Constantinople,  described 
the  state  of  its  language  about  thirty  years  before  the  conquest  of 
the  Turks.  "  The  vulgar  speech,"  says  he,  "  has  been  depraved  by 
the  people,  and  infected  by  the  arrivals  of  strangers  and  merchants, 
who  daily  Hock  to  the  city  and  mingle  with  its  inhabitants.  It  is 
from  the  disciples  of  such  a  school  that  the  Latins  received  the  trans- 
lations of  Plato  and  Aristotle  ;  so  obscure  in  sense,  and  so  vapid  in 
spirit.  But  the  Greeks  who  have  escaped  this  contagion,  and  whom, 
we  ourselves  both  follow  and  imitate,  even  now  in  familiar  discourse 
speak  the  tongue  of  Aristophanes  and  Euripides,  of  the  historians, 
orators,  and  philosophers  of  Athens,  and  the  style  of  their  writings 
is  still  more  elaborate  and  correct.  The  persons  who,  by  their  birth 
and  offices,  are  attached  to  the  court,  retain  the  ancient  dignity  and 
elegance  of  speech  ;  and  above  all  the  women  of  quality,  who,  wholly 
excluded  from  all  intercourse  with  strangers,  preserved,  without 
alloy,  the  genuine  and  pure  idiom  of  their  fathers." 

There  may  be  some  exaggeration  in  this  statement  of  the  Italian 
writer ;  but  it  is  remarkable  that  Cicero,  in  speaking  of  the  women 
of  rank  in  the  polished  days  of  the  Roman  commonwealth,  praises 
the  purity  of  their  language,  which  was  not  tainted  by  any  vicious 
novelty,  and  accounts  for  it  almost  in  the  same  words.  "  Women," 
he  observes,  "  more  easily  retain  the  genuine  graces  of  language, 
because,  unused  to  a  variety  of  sounds,  they  quit  not  those  which 
they  first  acquired.  When  I  hear  the  ancient  Laelia  speak,  I  seem 
to  listen  to  the  accents  of  Plautus  or  Ncevius ;  so  chaste,  so  simple 
are  the  tones  of  her  voice,  free  from  affectation  and  even  from  imita- 
tion. Thus,  I  say,  her  father  spoke,  and  her  more  ancient  progeni- 
tors." In  another  work,  he  mentions,  with  the  same  applause,  the 
names  of  other  illustrious  Roman  ladies.1 

Among  the  Greeks,  besides  a  numerous  and  opulent  clergy, 
neither  the  monks  in  their  retirement,  nor  the  princes  on  the  throne 
with  their  ministers,  had  ceased  to  cultivate  letters,  and  the  schools 
of  philosophy  and  eloquence  continued  to  be  frequented.  These 
were  fortunate  circumstances  ;  but  it  was  still  more  fortunate  that 
Greece,  with  her  schools  and  libraries,  and  treasures  of  living  learn- 
ing, was  not  overwhelmed  by  the  Turkish  arms,  till  all  the  realms  of 
Europe  were  prepared  to  afford  them  an  asylum,  and  to  profit  by  the 
circumstances  which  occasioned  their  dispersion. 

1  De  Orat.  iii.  45;  De  Claris  Orat.  211. 


II. 


ON    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 


A  general  view — The  Saracens  establish  themselves  in  Africa  and  Spain — 
They  encourage  letters — Their  grammar — Eloquence — Poetry — Philo- 
logy —  Lexicographers  — Philosophy  —  Ethics  and  asceticism  —  Medi- 
cine— Natural  History — Mathematics — Geography — History — The  fall 
of  Granada,  the  last  Moorish  settlement — And  of  the  Caliphate — The 
three  Arabian  historians — Conclusion. 

As  the  sketch  which  1  shall  now  attempt  to  give  of  Arabian  litera- 
ture is,  in  its  commencement,  contemporary  with  the  most  forlorn 
era  of  which  I  have  treated  in  the  preceding  work,  particularly  under 
the  Lombard  government  in  Italy,  I  must  request  that  the  reader 
will  kindly  look  back  to  that  portion  of  my  history. 

When  we  consider  the  desolating  policy  which  inspired  the  plans 
of  the  followers  of  Mahomet,  and  the  fanaticism  by  which  they  were 
achieved,  the  last  wonder  to  be  expected  was,  the  cultivation  of 
learning  and  the  gentle  arts  of  peace.  One  hundred  years  after  the 
flight  of  the  prophet  from  Mecca  to  Medina,  which  was  in  622,  and 
is  the  first  year  of  the  Hegira,  the  arms  and  dominions  of  his  suc- 
cessors extended  from  India  to  the  Atlantic  ocean,  over  the  various 
and  distant  provinces,  which  may  be  comprised  under  the  general 
names  of  Persia,  Syria,  Egypt,  Africa,  and  Spain. 

In  the  earliest  accounts  of  the  Arabias,  the  native  inhabitants  are 
said  to  have  possessed  a  taste  for  letters,  considered  as  restricted 
principally  to  eloquence  and  poetry ;  and  great  praise  is  bestowed 
upon  the  force  and  the  harmony  of  their  language  :  but  when  we  are 
told  that  they  had  fourscore  words  to  signify  honey,  two  hundred  a 
serpent,  five  hundred  a  lion,1  a  thousand  a  sword,  and  to  illustrate 

1  M.  Grangeret  de  la  Grange,  a  learned  Orientalist,  informs  me  that  in 
Arabic  there  are  in  reality  but  two  words  to  express  a  lion,  but  the  Arabians 
make  use  of  infinite  paraphrases.  For  instance,  instead  of  either  of  the  two 
words  in  question,  they  would  say:  the  father  of  severity,  a  term  implying 
the  terrible  aspect  of  the  animal. 


RISE  OP  ISLAMISM.  413 

each  of  which  whole  treatises  were  compiled,  I  must  be  allowed  to 
withhold  my  assent  from  the  philological  prodigy.  When  a  lan- 
guage is  perplexed  by  synonymous  words,  these  are  known  to  have 
arisen  from  an  intercourse  with  other  nations,  caused  by  conquest 
or  by  commerce ;  but  it  is  said  that  the  Arabians  were  never  subju- 
gated, and  they  lived  in  a  state  of  independent  seclusion.  Whence 
then  could  so  stupendous  a  multiplication  of  superfluous  words  have 
proceeded ;  and  at  a  time  when  their  compositions  were  committed 
to  the  repository  of  memory,  rather  than  of  books  ? 

Their  poets,  as  was  primarily  the  case  among  all  nations,  were 
their  historians,  whose  verses  recorded  the  distinction  of  descents, 
of  which  the  Arabians  were  proud,  the  rights  of  families,  and  the 
memory  of  great  exploits.  But  even  in  poetry,  the  freeborn  spirit 
of  the  Arabians  would  not  be  shackled  by  many  rules ;  and  their 
eloquence  has  been  compared  to  loose  gems,  brilliant,  but  not  im- 
proved by  artificial  combination ;  or  less  elegantly,  to  "  sand  with- 
out lime."  It  was  not  by  a  discourse  methodically  arranged,  as 
among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  but  by  the  fulness  of  insulated 
periods,  the  harmony  of  expression,  and  the  acuteness  of  proverbial 
sayings,  that  the  Arabian  orator  aimed  to  rouse  his  hearers.1 

Though  educated  in  the  purest  dialect  of  the  Arabian  language, 
Mahomet  is  said  to  have  been  illiterate,  and  not  even  to  have  been 
able  to  read.  "  As  to  acquired  learning,"  observes  Sale,  "  it  is  con- 
fessed, that  he  had  none  at  all,  having  had  no  other  education  than 
what  was  customary  in  his  tribe,  who  neglected,  and  perhaps 
despised,  what  we  call  literature ;  esteeming  no  language  in  com- 
parison with  their  own,  their  skill  in  which  they  gained  by  use  and 
not  by  books,  and  contenting  themselves  with  improving  their 
private  experience  by  committing  to  memory  such  passages  of  their 
poets  as  they  judged  might  be  of  use  to  them  in  life."  From 
Mahomet,  therefore,  learning,  even  in  its  lowest  branches,  could 
look  for  no  encouragement ;  and  when  we  follow  him  and  his 
immediate  successors  through  the  progress  of  their  mighty  achieve- 
ments, we  tremble  lest  the  monuments  of  past  ages  perishing  in 
the  general  wreck  of  nations,  the  rhapsodies  of  the  Koran  should 
alone  survive.  "  As  to  the  books,  of  which  you  have  made  mention," 
replied  Omar,  the  second  caliph,  when  consulted  by  his  general 
Amrou  about  the  Alexandrian  library,  "  if  there  be  in  them  what 
accords  with  the  book  of  God  (meaning  the  Koran),  there  is  without 
them  all  that  is  sufficient :  if  there  be  any  thing  in  them  repugnant 
to  that  book,  we  in  no  respect  want  them.  Command  them  to  be  all 
destroyed."*  This  fact,  which  is  not  recorded  by  the  historians 
nearest  to  the  times,  may  not  be  untrue ;  but  it  is  not  less  certain, 
that  the  triumph  of  their  faith  by  arms,  rather  than  the  preservation 

1  Sale's  Preliminary  Discourse  to  his  Translation  of  the  Koran. 

2  Abulpharagius  Dynast.  114  ;  OXOD.  1003.  I  shall  speak  of  him  hereafter. 


414     OF  THE  ARABIAN  OR  SARACENIC  LEARNING. 

or  the  dissemination  of  liberal  knowledge,  was  the  object  of 
Moslem  ambition. 

The  Arabians  began  ill;  but  they  began  as  other  nations  had 
done :  for  it  is  only  when  success  has  ensured  security,  and  empire 
is  established,  that  the  mind  begins  to  think  of  letters  in  the  serenity 
of  repose,  and  to  seek  for  satisfaction  and  for  fame  in  other  occupa- 
tions than  those  of  arms.  It  may  be  said,  that  the  Arabian  character 
had  been  suspended  :  that  it  returned  to  its  native  habits,  when  time 
and  prosperity  chilled  the  ardour  or  relaxed  the  energies  of  fanati- 
cism, and  bigotry  gave  way  to  the  suggestions  of  a  laudable 
curiosity. 

Unde'r  the  reign  of  the  caliphs  of  the  house  of  the  Ommyiah, 
who,  during  ninety  years,  resided  at  Damascus,  the  studies  of  the 
Moslems  were  confined  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Koran,  and 
to  the  eloquence  and  poetry  of  their  native  tongue,  which  was 
generally  diffused  through  the  vast  extent  of  all  their  conquests. 
Indeed,  the  caliph  Walid  I.  prohibited  the  use  of  the  Greek  lan- 
guage, and  ordered  the  Arabic  to  be  substituted  in  its  place.  But 
on  the  accession  of  the  Abbassides  to  the  caliphate  in  750,  Alman- 
zor,  the  second  of  the  dynasty,  removed  the  seat  of  empire  to 
Bagdad,  the  foundations  of  which  he  laid  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris, 
where  it  soon  became  the  most  splendid  city  of  the  East.  The 
simplicity  of  the  first  caliphs  was  now  succeeded  by  the  magnificence 
of  the  Persian  court ;  and  Almanzor,  who  had  personally  cultivated 
science,  professed  himself  the  lover  of  letters  and  of  learned  men. 
He  offered  rewards  to  such  as  should 'produce  translations  of  Greek 
authors  on  the  subjects  which  were  most  adapted  to  the  taste  of  his 
countrymen — philosophy,  astronomy,  mathematics,  and  medicine — 
by  which  means  he  hoped  to  enrich  his  native  literature,  and  to 
excite  the  attention  of  his  subjects  to  higher  attainments.  The 
successors  of  Almanzor  pursued  the  same  track.  Their  ambassadors 
at  Constantinople,  and  their  agents  in  other  parts,  collected  the 
volumes  of  Grecian  learning,  which  were  translated  by  the  most 
skilful  interpreters.  Men  of  genius  were  exhorted  to  pursue  them 
with  assiduity;  and  the  vicars  themselves  of  the  prophet  were  some- 
times seen  to  assist  with  pleasure  at  the  conversations  of  the  learned. 
Then  it  was,  in  the  lofty  language  of  Eastern  eloquence,  that  men 
of  science  were  denominated  "  luminaries  that  dispel  darkness ;  lords 
of  human  kind;  of  whom,  when  the  .world  becomes  destitute,  it 
again  sinks  into  barbarism."1 

When  the  son  of  Mesuach,  a  young  Nestorian  Christian,  retiring 
from  his  own  country,  first  entered  Bagdad,  it  is  related2  that  he 
appeared  to  have  discovered  a  new  world.  He  saw  that  the  follow- 
ers of  Christ  and  of  Mahomet  were  there  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of 
the  liberal  arts.  Here  then  he  remained,  applying  himself  to 

1  Abulphar.  Dynast.  160. 

-  Leo  Afric.  de  viris  Illust.  ap.  Arab.  Bib.  G.  vi.  9,  xiii. 


RISE  OF  ISLAMISM.  415 

medicine,  philosophy,  and  astronomy.  His  acquirements  became 
great,  and  his  knowledge  of  languages  extensive ;  whence,  himself 
being  a  treasure  of  learning,  he  was  chosen  to  attend  on  prince 
Almamon,  the  son  of  the  caliph  Heron-al-Raschid,  and  to  accompany 
him  on  an  important  embassy.  But  the  great  deference  which  was 
shown  to  him  displeased  the  caliph.  "  AVhy  have  you  this  Christian," 
he  said  to  his  son,  "  so  constantly  about  your  person  ?" — "  I  keep 
him  as  an  artist,"  replied  Almamon,  "  and  not  as  the  director  of  my 
conscience ;  and  your  highness  is  aware  how  much  the  Jews  and 
Christians  are  necessarily  employed  in  your  states."  Another 
instructor  of  Almamon  was  the  Persian  Kessai,  who,  one  day  calling 
on  the  prince,  when  he  was  at  table  with  his  friends,  was  not 
admitted,  but  received  from  him  the  following  lines :  "  There  is  a 
sen  son  for  study,  and  a  season  for  amusement :  the  present  hour 
belongs  to  friendship  and  the  joys  of  the  table." — Kessai  on  the  back 
of  the  same  leaf  wrote,  "  Were  you  well  apprised  of  the  excellence 
of  learning,  you  would  prefer  the  pleasure  which  it  can  give,  to 
what  you  now  enjoy ;  and  did  you  know  who  waits  at  your  door, 
you  would  rise,  and  coming,  on  your  knees  thank  Heaven  for  the 
t'uvnur  which  it  shows  you."  The  prince  rose,  and  attended  on  his 
master.1 

On  the  accession  of  Almamon  to  the  caliphate  in  813,  anxious  as 
he  was  himself  to  acquire  knowledge,  and  to  instil  the  same  desire 
into  the  public  mind,  he  invited  learned  men  from  all  nations  to  his 
court,  whatever  might  be  their  religion ;  and  collecting  from  them 
the  names  of  the  most  celebrated  authors,  and  the  titles  of  the  works 
•which  they  had  published  in  the  Greek,  the  Syriac,  and  Persian 
languages,  he  directed  journeys  to  be  undertaken,  and  volumes  to  be 
purchased.  The  number  of  these,  says  the  historian,  was  immense. 
The  next  point  was,  to  select  what  was  deemed  most  valuable  under 
each  head  of  science,  and  to  proceed  to  the  business  of  translation. 
The  son  of  Mesuach  presided  over  this  important  work,  when,  it  is 
suid,  that  among  many  others,  the  volumes  of  Galen  on  Medicine, 
and  all  the  treatises  of  Aristotle,  were  translated  into  Arabic.  Thus 
enriched,  as  it  seemed  to  them,  with  the  best  stores  of  Grecian 
learning,  they  committed  the  residue  to  the  flames,  as  useless,  or 
perhaps  as  dangerous  to  the  Moslem  faith.  Indeed,  as  the  austere 
Cati)  once  feared  the  contagion  of  Grecian  eloquence,  the  sages  of 
the  law  looked  with  jealousy  upon  the  introduction  amongst  them  of 
philosophy  and  other  speculative  studies,  to  which  their  caliph  was 
peculiarly  addicted.  And  his  friendship  for  Mesuach  also  gave 
offence  to  them  when  he  observed  :  "  Surely,  as  I  entrust  to  him  the 
care  of  my  body,  wherein  dwells  the  immortal  part  of  me,  I  may 
well  commit  to  him  the  superintendence  over  words  and  writings, 
in  many  of  which  neither  his  faith  nor  mine  has  any  concern."  It 
was  in  the  capacity  of  physicians  that  many  Christians  continued 
to  be  employed  in  the  court  of  Bagdad. 

1  D'Herbelot,  Bib.  Orient,  art.  Kessai. 


416  OF    THE    AEABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

Almamon  reigned  twenty  years.  He  was  the  greatest  prince  of 
a  dynasty  which  was  celebrated  for  great  men,  and  is  represented  to 
us  as  possessing,  besides  the  virtues  of  a  king  and  the  talents  of  a 
warrior,  the  more  pleasing  endowments  of  generosity  and  gentleness, 
which  were  embellished  by  literary  taste.  When,  in  terms  highly 
courteous  and  flattering,  he  applied  to  the  court  of  Byzantium,  say- 
ing, that  could  the  cares  of  government  have  allowed  it,  he  would 
have  waited  in  person  on  the  emperor,  he  received  the  rude  answer : 
"  That  the  sciences  which  had  reflected  glory  on  the  Roman  name 
should  not  be  communicated  to  barbarians." 

But  the  splendour  of  the  caliphate  soon  began  to  decline  ;  and  it 
is  related '  that  Radhi,  who  reigned  early  in  the  tenth  century,  was 
"  the  last  who  harangued  the  people  from  the  pulpit ;  who  passed 
the  cheerful  hours  of  leisure  with  men  of  learning  arid  taste  ;  whose 
expenses,  revenues,  and  treasures,  whose  table  or  magnificence  had 
any  resemblance  to  those  of  the  ancient  caliphs."  But  the  unwieldy 
weight  and  cumbrous  magnitude  of  the  empire  were  the  principal 
causes  of  its  ruin.  Extensive  powers  were  necessarily  delegated  to 
the  distant  emirs  or  governors,  and  when  they  had  armies  and 
treasures  at  their  command,  these  soon  became  the  instruments  of 
ambition.  We  then  behold  the  rise  of  independent  monarchies. 
But  if  by  these  revolts  the  caliphate  was  divided  and  weakened  by 
division,  it  is  probable  that  ruin  was  by  this  means  averted  from  the 
remaining  kingdoms  of  the  Christian  world,  which  seemed  to  be 
threatened  by  the  union  of  such  a  mighty  power. 

While  the  Arabian  mind,  by  the  means  which  I  have  mentioned, 
and  principally  through  the  course  of  the  ninth  century,  was  expanded 
and  enriched  by  the  treasures  of  Greece,  the  reader  will  recollect 
what  was  the  state  of  things  in  the  West  when  Charlemagne  was 
dead,  and  all  the  hopes  which  his  labours  had  excited  of  the  return 
of  better  days  were  extinguished. 

The  various  revolts  which  dismembered  the  Moslem  empire  form 
the  principal  subject  of  the  annals  of  the  Saracens;  but  I  shall  notice 
as  connected  with  letters  those  only  of  Africa  and  Spain.2 

By  Amrou,  the  general  of  Omar,  Egypt  had  been  completely 
subdued  in  641,  and  within  a  few  years  was  begun  the  conquest  of 
Africa  from  the  Nile  to  the  Atlantic  ocean.  The  usual  tide  of 
success  attended  the  arms  of  Abdallah,  and  after  the  establishment 
of  the  house  of  Ommiyah,  Akbah,  the  general  of  the  caliph  Moa- 
wiyah,  we  are  told,  pursued  his  career  of  victory  till  it  was  checked 
by  the  waves  of  the  boundless  ocean.  Before  the  close  of  the  century 
the  conquest  of  Africa  was  complete,  when  Spain  was  invaded  from 
its  shores,  and  about  the  year  713  reduced  to  a  Moslem  province. 

This  province,  howrever,  was  the  theatre  of  the  first  successful 

1  Abulfeda,  Annal.  Moslem.  261. 

-  M.  Cardonne  published  in  Paris,  in  1700,  a  Histolrc  de  tAfrlquc  ct  tie 
TEspagne  sous  la  domination  ties  Araltvs. 


THE    CALIPHS    ENCOURAGE    LITERATURE.  417 

revolt  against  the  caliphs.  In  the  proscription  of  the  Ommiades 
about  the  year  750,  a  royal  youth  of  the  name  of  Abdalrahman  alone 
escaped.  He  wandered  from  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  to  the 
vallies  of  Mount  Atlas,  was  invited  into  Spain  by  the  friends  to  the 
fallen  family,  landed  on  the  coast  of  Andalusia,  and,  after  a  successful 
struggle,  established  the  throne  of  Cordova,  in  the  year  755. 

The  example  of  Spain  seems  to  have  encouraged  many  similar  acts 
of  rebellion.  In  812  the  great  revolution  commenced  in  Africa, 
which  finally  terminated  in  the  establishment  of  two  independent 
sovereignties  in  the  Fatimite  dynasty,  the  seats  of  which  were  at 
Cairo  in  Egypt,  and  at  Fez  on  the  shores  of  the  Western  Ocean. 

We  have  seen  the  encouragement  which  was  given  to  letters  by 
Almamon  at  Bagdad,  which  was  sometimes  imitated  by  his  successors 
of  the  same  line,  and  extended  to  many  other  cities.  The  same 
conduct  calls  for  our  admiration  in  their  rivals,  the  Fatimites  of 
Africa  and  the  Ommiades  of  Spain.  They  became  the  patrons 
of  learning,  and  their  example,  communicating  a  general  spirit  of 
emulation,  diffused  a  taste  for  letters,  whilst  rewards  and  stipends 
allured  the  learned  to  their  courts,  and  operated  as  a  powerful 
stimulus  to  intellectual  exertion.  If  Bagdad  could  boast  of  its 
richly  endowed  college  in  which  instruction  was  freely  communi- 
cated, and  of  its  profusion  of  volumes,  collected  from  every  region  by 
the  curiosity  of  the  studious  and  the  vanity  of  the  rich,  the  same 
splendid  distinction  was  possessed  by  Cairo  and  Cordova.  The 
royal  library  of  the  Fatimites  is  said  to  have  consisted  of  one  hundred 
thousand  manuscripts,  and  the  collection  of  Spain  was  far  more 
abundant.  Cordova,  with  the  adjacent  towns  of  Malaga,  Almeria, 
and  Murcia,  gave  birth  to  many  writers ;  and  it  is  related  that  above 

seventy  public  libraries  were  opened  in  the  cities  of  Andalusia.1 

But  it  is  now  proper  to  be  more  particular. 

I  have  before  me  an  interesting  work  on  the  literature  of  the 
Saracens  during  the  most  splendid  era  of  their  government ;  and 
though  its  contents  under  many  heads  may  principally  regard  Spain, 
they  will  be  found  adequately  to  represent  the  general  standard  of 
learning  in  its  full  extent  and  character,  whether  at  Cordova  or  Fez, 
at  Cairo  or  at  Bagdad.-  In  these  seats  of  empire,  though  so  widely 

1  I  have  copied  this  short  statement  from  Mr.  Gibbon,  vol.  v.,  having 
previously   consulted  the   authorities  which  he  quotes  :  Bib.  Arab.  Hisp. 
Leo  Afric.;  D'Herbelot,  Bib.  Orient. 

2  Referring  to  this  work  (vol.  v.  381),  Mr.  Gibbon  snys,  "  I  am  happy  to 
possess  a  splendid  and  interesting  work,  which  has  been  distributed  only  in 
presents  by  the   court  of  Madrid  :    BihHothccn  sir/ibico-Hixpana  Escu- 
rialcnxix,   IIJIITH   fl  studio   Michaelis    Casiri,   Syro-Maronita  Matriti   in 
folio,  Tomus  prior,  1700.     TbltMU  jwttmor,  1770.     The  execution  of  this 
work  does  honour  to  the  Spanish  press:  the  MSS.  to  the  number  of  1801, 
are  judiciously  classed  by  the  editor,  and  his  copious  extracts  throw  some 
light  on  the  Mahometan  literature  :md  history  of  Spain.     These  relics  are 

E  £ 


418  OF    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

separated,  the  same  language  was  spoken,  and  the  same  taste  seemed 
to  prevail.  It  is  indeed  proper  to  add  that  the  works  to  which  I 
now  allude,  and  on  the  style  and  contents  of  which  our  judgment 
must  be  formed,  are  many  of  them  not  the  peculiar  offspring  of  the 
Spanish  school.  Let  me,  however,  profess  my  ignorance  of  the 
oriental  tongues,  and  my  gratitude  therefore  to  the  learned  inter- 
preters who  have  transfused  their  spirit  into  the  languages  most 
common  in  Europe.  And  if,  when  these  versions  are  said  to  be 
most  faithful,  we  feel  not  that  glow  of  admiration  which  is  expressed 
by  the  adepts  in  the  original  idioms,  the  cause  may  be  principally 
ascribed  to  the  diversity  of  eastern  manners  and  to  the  extravagance 
of  eastern  imagery.  If  the  more  temperate  climate  of  Spain  have 
rendered  this  less  glaring,  and  intercourse  with  its  Christian  natives 
have  effected  other  changes,  still,  while  the  language  remained  un- 
altered, the  primitive  models  must  have  left  a  permanent  impression. 

It  must  at  the  same  time  be  admitted  that  the  Arabian  volumes 
possess  much  which  to  our  apprehension  could  only  have  a  local 
value  and  a  temporary  interest.  But  on  many  of  our  own  pro- 
ductions they  surely  would  be  authorised  to  pass  the  same  judgment. 
And  while  we  freely  censure  their  partial  histories,  their  codes  and 
commentaries  on  the  law  of  their  prophet,  their  endless  interpreta- 
tions of  the  Koran,  and  the  whole  mass  of  polemics,  mystics, 
scholastics,  and  moralists,  we  should  not  refuse  the  same  liberty  to 
an  Arabian  critic,  who,  admitted  to  turn  over  the  volumes  which 
crowd  our  libraries,  would  soon  discover  ample  grounds  for  just  re- 
crimination. Two  things  are  remarkable — that  they  should  have 
written  so  much,  and  that  so  much  should  have  been  preserved,  when 
we  consider  that  equal  exertions  were  not  made  in  Greece  or  Rome 
in  any  former  period,  and  that  such  shameful  negligence  as  I  have 
often  lamented  disgraced  the  conduct  of  their  descendants.  But  if 
the  Arabians  wrote  much,  it  follows  that  they  also  read,  or  in  other 
words,  that  they  were  a  literary  people. 

Before  the  times  of  Mahomet,  the  Arabians  or  Saracens — for  the 
words  with  us  are  synonymous,  whatever  may  have  been  the  origin 
of  the  latter — possessing  a  natural  flow  of  eloquence,  were  little 
acquainted  with  the  rules  of  grammar.  But  in  an  early  period  of 
their  conquests,  an  apprehension  having  arisen  that  a  commixture  of 
so  many  nations  would  vitiate  the  purity  of  their  tongue,  it  became 
an  object  of  solicitude  to  prevent  this  effect,  and  for  this  purpose 
learned  men  were  directed  to  institute  rules,  and  academies  were 
founded  with  the  same  view.  The  names  of  not  less  than  thirty  early 
grammarians  are  extant,  among  whom  great  difference  of  opinion 

now  secure ;  but  the  task  had  been  supinely  delayed,  till,  in  the  year  1071, 
a  fire  consumed  the  greatest  part  of  the  Escurial  library,  rich  in  the  spoils 
of  Grenada  aud  Morocco."  A  copy  of  this  work,  kindly  entrusted  to  me  by 
the  earl  of  Malmesbury,  to  whom  it  was  presented  by  his  Catholic  majesty, 
is  now  in  my  possession. 


ARABIAN    PHILOLOGY.  419 

prevailed,  and  commentaries  in  many  volumes,  and  of  an  endless 
prolixity,  continued  to  be  published.  Among  these  commentators 
not  a  tew  were  Spaniards.  Grammar,  even  to  an  Arabian  mind, 
could  afford  subjects  for  poetical  composition ;  and  Ebn l  Malek,  a 
native  of  Spain,  celebrated  for  his  universal  knowledge,  and  who 
lived  in  the  thirteenth  century,  has  left  behind  him  more  than  forty 
works  on  language,  of  which  five  are  called  poetical.  When  I  speak 
of  language  I  must  be  understood  to  mean  that  of  Arabia ;  for  the 
Saracens,  proud  in  the  riches  of  their  native  speech,  disdained  the 
study  <>f  any  foreign  tongue,  and  were  satisfied  that  translation 
should  open  the  treasures  of  Greece  to  their  inspection. 

The  two  hundred  arid  one  works  on  grammar,  which  the  Escurial 
library  alone  has  preserved,  sufficiently  attest  the  scrupulous  care 
with  which  the  purity  of  the  Arabic  language  was  protected ;  its 
rules  of  pronunciation  and  syntax  explained ;  its  elegancies  marked, 
and  its  obscurities  elucidated.  Even  the  accuracy  and  elegance  of 
transcription  which  is  visible  in  many  copies,  so  late  as  the  sixteenth 
century  of  our  era,  must  be  viewed  as  a  continued  proof  of  sedulous 
industry.  Works  of  real  philological  science  proceeded  from  all  the 
schools  of  the  Arabian  professors,  and  men  of  talents  employed 
themselves  in  unravelling  the  intricacies  of  grammar  :  while  no 
standard  of  language  could  be  found  in  Christian  Europe,  while 
Latin  was  become  obsolete,  or  served  only  to  supply  the  materials 
out  of  which,  by  a  slow  process,  the  dialects  of  modern  Europe  were 
to  be  formed ;  and  while  he  who  could  barely  read  was  deemed  a 
man  of  erudition.  "  Then  such,"  exclaims  our  oriental  linguist, 
"  was  Arabia,  the  nurse  of  letters,  when  even  Greece  grew  languid, 
the  mistress  of  Asia,  of  Africa,  and  of  Europe.  Her  natives  turned 
their  minds  with  so  much  ardour  to  the  cultivation  of  science,  that, 
though  it  may  almost  be  said  that  the  world  submitted  to  their  arms, 
it  remains  a  doubt  whether  the  greatest  renown  be  due  to  the  splen- 
dour of  these  achievements,  or  to  the  tranquil  cultivation  of  litera- 
ture."2 

Jt  has  been  observed,  that  the  ancient  Arabians,  though  naturally 
eloquent,  were  lax  and  desultory  in  their  addresses,  of  which  many 
passages  in  the  Koran  are  a  proof;  and  when  more  matured  reflec- 
tion had  corrected  the  exuberance  of  fancy,  this  consideration 
impelled  them  to  recur  to  the  chastened  mod  els  of  Grecian  eloquence. 
These  were  translated,  and  their  principles  adapted  to  the  genius  of 
the  Asiatic  tongue.  From  this  time  they  could  boast  of  their  rheto  • 
ricians,  of  whom  it  is  boldly  asserted,  that  they  might  lie  compared 
with  Quintilian  in  perspicuity  and  truth  of  precept,  whilst  they  could 
vie  with  Cicero  in  beauty  and  in  copiousness.  Among  the  first  was 
Kbn  Alsekaki,  a  Persian,  whose  celebrated  work  is  entitled  The  Key 

1  Ebn  signifies  sun,  as  Abou  signifies  father,  and  both  enter  into  the  com- 
position of  Arabian  names. 
1  Bibliotbeca  Arabico-IIispana,  i.  1 — 40. 

E  E  2 


420     OF  THE  ARABIAN  OR  SARACENIC  LEARNING. 

of  Sciences,  on  which  many  commentaries  have  been  written,  and 
which,  in  the  tumid  language  of  its  admirers,  has  been  called  "  a 
boundless  ocean,  flowing  with  everything  precious."  Let  no  one, 
observes  Alsekaki  in  his  general  precepts,  pretend  to  excellence  in 
writing,  whose  mind  has  not  been  well-seasoned  in  the  school  of  all 
the  liberal  arts.  In  his  Universal  Method,  Algezeri,  another  rheto- 
rician, states  the  several  kinds  of  knowledge  with  which  the  orator 
should  be  furnished.  lie  should  possess,  he  says,  the  rules  of  gram- 
mar ;  be  skilled  in  the  accuracies  of  his  tongue  ;  have  present  to  his 
mind  the  proverbial  sayings  of  his  countrymen ;  be  versed  in  the 
select  writings  of  the  poets  ;  have  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  and  of 
the  Koran,  with  a  promptitude  in  applying  them  ;  and  be  conversant 
in  the  history  of  past  events,  particularly  those  in  which  the 
Moslems  bore  a  part.  In  a  third  work  on  the  same  subject  of 
oratory,  the  author,  Alsiuthi,  having  spoken  of  the  purity,  the 
elegance,  the  force  of  the  Arabian  tongue,  as  an  exemplification  of 
his  rules,  adduces  passages  from  the  most  approved  writers,  with 
their  testimonies  in  support  of  his  doctrine. 

Whilst  the  too  luxuriant  effusions  of  their  minds  were  restrained 
by  compliance  with  these  canons  of  discipline,  we  cannot  doubt  that 
the  Arabs  would  attain  the  elevation  of  perfect  eloquence.  In  the 
eleventh  century,  Athariri  is  extolled  as  a  consummate  orator.  But, 
though  the  translations  could  not  be  deemed  an  accurate  test,  we 
cannot  but  regret  that,  from  the  sixty-eight  works  which  fill  this 
department  some  extracts  have  not  been  exhibited  as  samples  of 
genuine  Arabian  eloquence  when  chastised  by  rule.1 

Besides  the  seven  celebrated  poets,  who  wrote  before  the  age  of 
Mahomet,  and  whose  works  on  various  subjects,  all  of  which  have 
not  much  connexion  with  poetry,  are  highly  esteemed  by  the 
Arabians,2  the  detailed  catalogue  of  their  successors  in  the  same 
walk  may  be  deemed  endless.  Not  less  than  two  hundred  and 
twenty  copies  of  their  works  are  contained  in  the  Escurial  library, 
many  of  which  are  by  Spanish  authors.  Indeed,  so  addicted  were 
the  Arabians  to  poetry,  and  so  flexible  was  their  language,  that  not 
only  the  jejune  rules  of  grammar,  but  philosophical  and  mathemati- 
cal questions,  jurisprudence  and  theology,  and  commentaries  or 
scholia  on  these  and  every  other  subject,  were  treated  by  them  in 
poetical  measure.  Much  has  been  written  on  the  variety  of  this 
measure,  which  from  the  earliest  times  was  rendered  diversified  and 
intricate,  in  elegies,  epigrams,  odes,  and  satires.  But  the  praises  of 
their  heroes,  particularly  of  Mahomet,  the  descriptions  of  beautiful 
scenery,  the  events  of  war,  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  the  charms  of 
virtue,  the  deformities  of  vice,  the  passion  of  love  in  all  its  modes 
and  influences,  together  with  apologues  or  moral  tales,  in  an  un- 
bounded variety,  are  those  themes  which  appear  most  congenial  with 
the  taste  of  the  Arabic  muse. 

1  Bib.  Arab.  Hisp.  i.  47—63. 

2  They  are  translated  by  Sir  William  Jones,  vol.  iy.  of  bis  works. 


THEIR  POETRY.  421 

That  portion  of  Arabia  called  Yemen,  or  the  Happy,  from  the 
delightfulness  of  its  climate  and  the  simple  manners  of  its  people,  is 
the  only  country,  it  has  been  observed,1  in  which  the  scene  of  pasto- 
ral poetry  can  properly  be  laid.  Placed  under  a  serene  sky,  and 
exposed  to  the  most  favourable  influence  of  the  sun,  Yemen  takes  its 
name  from  a  word  which  signifies  verdure  or  felicity  ;  for  in  those 
climates,  freshness  of  the  shade  and  coolness  of  water,  excite  ideas 
which  are  almost  inseparable  from  those  of  happiness.  Poetry, 
besides,  derives  its  principal  ornaments  from  the  beauty  of  natural 
images ;  whence  the  odours  of  Yemen,  the  musk  of  Hadramut,  and 
the  pearls  of  Omman,  supply  a  variety  of  allusions  to  the  Arabian 
poets.  And  if  the  remark  be  just,  "  that  whatever  is  delightful  to 
the  senses  produces  the  beautiful  when  described,"  what  may  not  be 
expected  from  eastern  poems,  which  turn  so  much  on  the  loveliest 
objects  of  nature  ?  Beautiful  expressions  are  obviously  suggested 
by  beautiful  images.  But  Arabian  poetry  does  not  delight  in  these 
alone.  The  gloomy  and  terrible  objects  which,  when  described, 
produce  the  sublime,  are  nowhere  more  common  than  in  the  desert 
and  stony  Arabias  ;  and  nothing  is  more  frequently  painted  by  their 
poets,  than  beasts  of  prey,  precipices  and  forests,  rocks  and  wilder- 
nesses. 

When  natural  objects  are  sublime  and  beautiful,  observes  the  same 
able  judge,2  such  will  be  introduced  as  cdmparisons,  and  metaphors, 
and  allegories  ;  for  an  allegory  is  a  string  of  metaphors,  a  metaphor 
is  a  short  simile,  and  the  finest  similes  are  drawn  from  nature.  The 
dew  of  liberality  and  the  odour  of  reputation  are  metaphors  very 
generally  used ;  but  they  are  peculiarly  proper  in  the  mouths  of 
those  who  have  so  much  need  of  being  refreshed  by  the  dews,  and 
who  gratify  the  sense  of  smelling  by  the  sweetest  odours.  When 
many  of  the  eastern  figures  are  examined  by  these  allusions,  they 
seem  to  possess  a  grace  to  which  in  our  northern  climates  they  have 
no  claim. 

The  Arabians  of  the  plains,  like  the  old  Nomades,  dwelt  in  tents, 
and  removed  from  place  to  place  according  to  the  season,  watching 
their  flocks  and  camels,  repeating  their  native  songs,  and  passing 
their  lives  in  the  highest  pleasures  of  which  they  had  any  concep- 
tion, surrounded  by  the  most  delightful  objects,  and  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  perpetual  spring.  And  if  the  genius  of  every  nation  is 
affected  by  its  climate,  that  of  the  East  must  abound  in  liveliness  of 
fancy  and  in  the  richness  of  invention.  Admirers  also  of  beauty 
in  the  human  figure,  the  Arabians  were  peculiarly  susceptible  of  that 
passion  which  has  been  aptly  termed  the  genuine  source  of  agree- 
able poetry.  Love  has  certainly  the  greatest  share  in  all  their 
poems  ;  and  there  is  hardly  an  elegy,  a  panegyric,  or  even  a  satire, 
which  does  not  open  with  the  complaints  of  an  unfortunate,  or  the 
raptures  of  a  successful  lover.  The  description  then  follows  of  the 

1  I  copy  Sir  William  Jones ;  Essay  on  Asiatic  Poetry,  iv.  ~y>7.       2  Ibid. 


422     OF  THE  ARABIAN  OR  SARACENIC  LEARNING. 

horse  or  camel  on  which  he  is  to  be  carried  to  the  tent  of  the 
beloved  object.1 

With  this,  turn  for  poetry,  the  Arabians  had  the  advantage  of  a 
rich  and  beautiful  language,  expressive,  forcible,  sonorous,  and 
perhaps  the  most  copious  in  the  world.  From  the  familiarity  of  this 
people  with  the  most  enchanting  objects,  from  leading  a  calm  and 
tranquil  life  in  a  fine  climate,  addicted  to  the  softer  passions,  and 
possessed  of  such  a  language  as  has  been  described,  they  could  be 
deficient  in  no  ingredient  which  was  requisite  to  give  a  vigorous 
impulse  to  poetical  composition,  provided  their  manners  and  customs 
were  at  the  same  tune  favourable  to  the  cultivation  of  the  art.  This 
was  the  case  in  a  high  degree. 

In  the  days  of  chivalry,  it  is  probable  that  we  learned  from  the 
Arabians  to  honour  our  poets  and  minstrels  ;  but  we  did  not  rise  to 
the  enthusiasm  of  our  masters.  Among  them,  when  a  poet  made 
his  first  appearance,  his  tribe  was  saluted  with  the  warmest  gratula- 
tions.  Happy,  exclaimed  the  exulting  multitude,  were  they  who 
now  possessed  a  hero  who  would  guard  their  honour,  and  a  herald 
who  would  perpetuate  the  fame  of  their  achievements.  It  was  on 
this  occasion,  and  when  the  birth  of  a  son  or  the  foaling  of  a  colt  of 
generous  descent  was  announced,  that  such  gratulations  were  prin- 
cipally expressed.  To  keep  alive  an  emulation  among  the  poets,  the 
tribes  are  said  once  a-year  to  have  held  a  general  assembly,  before 
which  they  recited  their  compositions,  sure  of  receiving  every 
merited  applause.  Even  the  most  admired  of  these  compositions 
were  transcribed  on  Egyptian  silk  in  letters  of  gold,  as  were  the 
seven  celebrated  poems  already  mentioned,  and  deposited  in  the 
public  treasury,  or  suspended  on  the  sides  of  the  sacred  Caaba  at 
Mecca.2  But  Mahomet,  intent  on  higher  objects,  suppressed  this 
assembly ;  when  the  pursuits  of  poetry  were  checked,  and  by  the 
interruption  many  of  the  ancient  poems,  which  were  chiefly  pre- 
served by  memory,  were  lost.  These  days  of  barbarism  soon 
passed  away,  and  the  courts  of  the  Saracen  princes  were  again 
opened  to  the  bards,  whose  songs  were  rewarded  with  a  munificence 
truly  royal. 

With  such  stimulating  patronage  and  inspiring  honours,  we 
cannot  be  surprised  that  poetry  should  have?  advanced  to  high  per- 
fection among  the  Saracens.  At  the  same  time  none  of  the  causes 
which,  with  us,  had  affected  language,  had  begun  to  operate,  and 
theirs  had  retained  its  primitive  purity  with  the  nicest  care.  This 
was  also  aided  by  the  contempt  in  which  they  held  the  speech  of 
other  nations,  though  they  could  value  the  contents  of  their  works. 
But  our  ablest  linguists  lament  that  no  version  can  transfuse  the 
elegant  sweetness  of  the  Arabian  bards.  This  is  an  evil  which  can- 
not be  avoided,  even  where  many  more  steps  of  approximation  in 

1  See  the  seven  ancient  poems  translated  by  Sir  Wm.  Jones,  vol.  iv. 

2  Sale's  Prelim.  Disc.  3C. 


THEIR  POETRY.  423 

yerbal  idiom,  in  national  manners,  and  in  natural  objects,  exist  than 
between  Europe  and  Asia. 

The  hatred  of  idolatry  was  so  deeply  fixed  in  the  mind  of  the 
Arabians,  that  if  they  could  have  received  pleasure  from  the  more 
sober  elegances  of  the  Grecian  school,  they  would  not  have  been 
induced  to  read  their  poets,  or  to  have  permitted  them  to  be 
translated.  They  seem,  therefore,  to  have  been  strangers  to  the 
mythology  of  the  Greeks  ;  but  they  had  a  mythology  of  their  own, 
composed  of  an  extensive  range  of  spiritual  beings,  whose  agency 
might  well  have  been  introduced  into  the  epic  drama,  had  they  fol- 
lowed the  rules  of  Aristotle,  whose  works  they  professed  to  ad'mire, 
or  could  the  poets  of  Greece  have  captivated  their  attention.  They 
were  barely  acquainted  with  the  name  of  Homer ;  and  not  so  much 
could  probably  be  said  of  Virgil,  nor  of  any  of  our  western  poets. 
It  has  sometimes  been  made  a  charge  against  the  Christians  of 
Spain  and  Africa  that  they  withheld  from  the  Moors,  or  did  not 
themselves  know  the  value  of,  the  classical  works  of  ancient  Rome  ; 
but  these  were  not  esteemed  even  by  the  Greeks  ;  and  besides,  it  is 
well  known,  that  the  cause  which  has  been  assigned  estranged  the 
Arabian  mind  from  the  perusal  of  our  poets. 

The  Arabians  were  also  strangers  to  dramatic  compositions  as 
adapted  to  the  stage ;  and  they  seem  not  to  have  known  the  names 
of  the  tragic  and  comic  writers  of  Greece.  But  they  made  up  for 
this  deficiency  by  a  species  of  writing,  more  fitted  to  the  retired 
habits  of  their  women,  which  consisted  of  tales  in  all  the  infinite 
ramifications  of  Asiatic  invention.  From  this  source  Europe  drew 
abundantly.1 

As  it  would  l>e  little  interesting,  I  have  not  specified  the  names, 
nor  mentioned  the  contents  and  particular  style  of  the  works  of  the 
most  celebrated  poets,  as  they  are  found  in  the  Escurial  collection. 
What  has  been  generally  observed  may  suffice  ;  to  which  I  will  only 
add,  that  whilst  the  delicacy  of  the  Arabians  on  certain  points  in 
which  their  faith  seemed  concerned  has  been  extreme,  and  it  may  be 
thought,  in  some  degree,  justly  reproachful  to  our  more  pliant  man- 
ners, their  licentious  and  disgusting  freedom  on  other  subjects  has 
passed  all  bounds.  But  this  freedom  has  not  escaped  the  severe  cen- 
sure of  their  rulers. 

Under  the  head  of  Philology,  many  miscellaneous  subjects,  serious 
and  facetious,  are  introduced  ;  and  as  the  reader  may  be  curious  to 
see  in  what  manner  the  learned  Spaniard  proceeds  in  his  laborious 
work,  he  may  take  the  following  specimen.  "  The  first,"  says  he, 
"  of  the  seventy -six  works  on  philology  is  a  copy,  for  elegance  and 
beauty  of  writing,  inferior  to  none,  decorated  with  golden  lines  and 
asterisks,  and  completed  on  the  fourth  day  of  the  month  Gemadi,  of 
the  Hegira  789,  of  Christ  1387,  for  the  use  of  the  king  of  Morocco. 

1  For  further  information  on  the  Asiatic  poets,  the  reader  may  consult  the 
works  of  Sir  William  Jones,  and  other  modern  publications. 


424  OF    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

It  contains  a  work  highly  valued  by  the  Arabians,  in  prose  and 
verse,  entitled  Academic  Harirean  Orations,  from  the  name  of  the 
author  Hariri,  and  which  may  be  considered  as  a  characteristic 
specimen  of  Arabian  elegance  and  learning.  The  discourses  are 
fifty,  many  of  which  portray  the  manners  of  the  age,  and  are  named 
from  certain  persons,  or  from  the  places  in  which  they  were  deli- 
vered. Thus  one  is  called  Alcailiat,  from  an  ancient  Arabian  prince 
Gail,  who  was  styled  the  Great  from  his  exploits ;  another  Alsana- 
niat,  from  Sanaa,  the  principal  city  of  Arabia  Felix.  The  author 
Alhariri,  a  native  of  Bassora,  died  in  1121,  of  the  Hegira515,  so 
celebrated  in  all  the  academies  as  to  have  commanded  the  praises  of 
the  most  learned,  and  have  induced  them  to  write  commentaries  on 
his  works.  '  The  Orations  of  Hariri,'  observes  Schirazi,  '  should  be 
inscribed  on  sheets  of  silk  and  gold,  not  on  parchment  or  linen.'  And 
thus  he  proceeds  to  add :  '  His  diction  is  graceful,  elegant,  and  com- 
pressed ;  his  method  and  copious  style  exhibit  the  art  of  fine  writing ; 
and  no  one  ever  more  vividly  displayed  the  peculiar  character  and 
amenities  of  the  Arabian  language.  In  all  his  discourses,  which  are 
adorned  with  the  flowers  of  rhetoric,  are  many  examples,  and  these 
are  set  off  by  passages  sometimes  calculated  to  draw  tears  by  their 
plaintiveness,  and  at  others  to  amuse  by  their  gaiety.'  "' 

The  contents  of  another  work  by  Ebn  Arabscah,  of  Damascus,  in 
tales  and  fables,  indicate  the  true  Arabian  origin  :  "  The  story  of  an 
Arabian  king  :  admonitions  of  a  king  of  Persia :  the  disputations  of 
a  man  with  the  king  of  the  genii :  the  sayings  and  actions  of  a  goat : 
the  judgment  of  a  solitary  lion  :  the  opinions  of  a  wandering  camel  : 
the  story  of  the  king  of  the  birds,  and  many  more  such  pieces,  de- 
signed by  elegant  and  diverting  discourses  to  improve  the  mind  and 
teach  the  art  of  government." 

Asba  Alazadita,  of  Corduba  or  Cordova,  in  the  twelfth  century, 
wrote  Descriptions  of  Things  and  their  Properties,  styled  the  Golden 
Verses,  in  which,  after  having  first  accurately  described  whatever 
seemed  to  appertain  to  man,  he  goes  on  to  describe  the  horse  in  all 
its  parts,  a  favourite  subject  with  the  Arabians,  and  to  state  what  his 
characteristic  nature  is,  and  what  the  qualities  deserving  of  praise  or 
censure.  He  then  passes  to  the  camel,  and  to  other  animals. 

Another  native  of  Corduba,  but  an  inhabitant  of  Sicily,  in  the 
eleventh  century,  composed  a  work  which  is  highly  moral,  and  di- 
vided into  sections — on  the  disposition  of  mind  with  which  the  events 
of  life  are  endured  in  submission  to  the  will  of  Heaven ;  on  mental 
sorrow  or  penitence ;  on  patience ;  on  the  conformity  of  our  wills 
with  that  of  God ;  and  on  the  purity  and  discipline  of  life. 

From  the  painted  figures  with  which  this  work  abounds,  and  the 
subjects  which  they  represent,  it  should  seem  rather  to  have  been  the 
transcription  of  a  Christian  than  of  an  Arabian  copyist.  The  names 

1  These  Orations  Lave  been  published  under  the  superintendence  of  M. 
Silvestre  de  Sacy. 


THEIR  LEXICOGRAPHERS.  425 

of  the  transcribers  are  generally  given,  and  the  precise  date  of  the 
MSS.1 

But  let  me  not  forget  to  speak  of  the  venerable  Locman.  He  is 
said  to  have  been  an  Ethiopian  or  Nubian,  extremely  deformed  in 
his  person,  but  so  famed  for  wisdom  as  to  have  acquired  the  appella- 
tion of  the  sage.  It  is  agreed,  that  he  lived  in  a  period  of  remote 
antiquity,  and  probably  during  the  reigns  of  the  Jewish  kings, 
David  and  Solomon.  His  fables  and  moral  maxims,  written  for  the 
instruction  of  mankind,  were,  in  the  estimation  of  the  eastern  people, 
a  gift  from  Heaven,  and  they  received  them  as  its  inspired  dictates. 
"  Heretofore,"  says  the  divine  being  in  the  Koran,  "  we  gave  wisdom 
to  Locman."2  Were  he  and  ^Esop  the  same  person  ?  It  is  not  im- 
probable that  Greece  was  indebted  to  the  East  for  the  fables  which 
she  claimed  under  the  name  of  ^Esop.  That,  at  least,  was  the  coun- 
try of  apologues,  a  species  of  writing  peculiarly  adapted  to  its  genius. 
Besides,  the  history  of  the  two  sages  is  so  perfectly  similar  in  their 
characters  and  the  incidents  of  their  lives,  that  one  must  have  been 
borrowed  from  the  other ;  and  in  this  case  to  doubt,  is  to  be  ignorant 
of  the  Grecian  character.  But  there  are  chronological  difficulties 
which  are  sufficiently  perplexing.* 

Another  proof  of  the  great  attention  with  which  the  Arabian  lan- 
guage was  cultivated,  may  be  drawn  from  the  number  of  lexicons  or 
dictionaries,  designed  to  elucidate  its  obscurities,  and  fix  the  proper 
meaning  of  words.  A  work  of  this  kind  appeared  in  the  early  years 
of  the  Hegira,  which  was  followed  by  many  similar  productions,  so 
comprehensive  and  minute  as  to  have  left  nothing  unexplored.  Among 
the  lexicographers,  two  are  principally  commended,  Geuharis  and 
Firuzabadi,  the  first  of  whom  lived  in  the  most  flourishing  era  of 
Arabian  literature,  the  latter  in  its  decline,  whom  the  student  should 
regard  as  polar  stars,  to  guide  him  unerringly  on  his  way.  Firuza- 
badi  lived  in  the  fifteenth  century,  the  eighth  of  the  Hegira,  was 
greatly  honoured  by  many  princes,  and,  as  a  reward  for  his  labours, 
is  said  to  have  received  from  the  Tartar  Tamerlane,  five  thousand 
pieces  of  gold.  His  work,  as  it  was  first  projected,  was  intended  to 
be  comprised  in  sixty  volumes,  which  he  reduced  to  one.  The  num- 
ber of  MSS.  on  this  head  are  forty-three/ 

Notwithstanding  the  early  fondness  of  the  Arabs  for  such  studies 
as  were  immediately  connected  with  the  improvement  of  their  lan- 
guage, they  did  not  apply  themselves  so  soon  to  the  pursuit  of  the 
higher  sciences.  They  had  long  followed  medicine  ;  and  they  had 
made  observations  in  astronomy ;  but  they  were  strangers  in  the 
walks  of  philosophy  ;  and  it  was  the  wish  of  the  prophet,  and  of  his 
immediate  successors,  that  the  Koran  alone,  rather  than  inquiries 

1  Bib.  Arab.  Hi.sp.  i.  H'->— 105.  »  C.  31. 

3  Bib.  Arab.  Ilisp.  i.  0:3—141.     See  also  Bib.  G.  ii.  0,  i.     D'Herbelot, 
Bil).  Orient,  art.  l/>cman. 

4  Bib.  Arab.  Hisp.  i.  100—177. 


426  OF    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

which  might  lead  to  its  contempt,  should  engage  the  thoughts  of  the 
Moslem.  Providence  had  other  views,  and  as  literature  retired  in 
disgust  from  the  realms  of  Christendom,  this  very  people  were  ready 
to  embrace  it  with  eagerness,  and  to  cherish  it  with  ardour  in  the 
court  of  Bagdad,  and  in  many  other  cities  of  their  empire. 

In  the  court  of  Bagdad  the  voice  of  philosophy  was  first  heard. 
The  works  of  the  Greek  sages  were  translated,  schools  were  opened, 
and  science  was  pursued  with  such  avidity,  that,  at  one  time,  we  read 
of  a  concourse  of  six  thousand  students.  The  same  zeal  was  felt  in 
Africa  and  in  Spain ;  and  we  are  furnished  with  magnificent  de- 
scriptions of  their  colleges.  But  Aristotle  was  the  master  whom 
they  principally,  if  not  exclusively  followed  ;  and  on  his  text  are 
founded  the  several  systems  of  philosophy  which  sometimes  united, 
but  oftener  divided,  the  Arabian  schools. 

Among  the  most  celebrated  philosophers,  the  first  was  Alkendi  of 
Bagdad,  who  taught  there  in  our  ninth  century,  who  was  styled,  in 
the  language  of  the  East,  "  the  root  of  the  age,  the  phoenix  in  the 
circle  of  sciences,  and  the  philosopher  of  the  Arabians,"  from  whose 
pen  proceeded  treatises  on  logic,  geometry,  arithmetic,  music,  and 
astronomy,  with  commentaries  on  the  works  of  Aristotle,  to  whom 
he  implicitly  resigned  his  judgment  on  every  question. 

Alkendi  was  followed  by  Thabet  Ebn  Korra  in  the  next  century, 
who  wrote  on  the  same  subjects,  and  on  the  books  of  Euclid,  and 
who,  like  his  predecessor,  and  many  more  of  the  Arabian  sages, 
joined  the  profession  of  medicine  to  the  study  of  philosophy. 

In  the  tenth  century  also  lived  Alfarabi,  who,  having  studied  with 
uncommon  success  at  Bagdad,  where  honours  were  held  out  to  him, 
and  his  stay  was  pressed  with  the  warmest  solicitations,  withdrew 
from  the  splendid  scene,  and  in  retirement,  joining  practice  to  theory, 
devoted  himself  to  intellectual  pursuits.  In  the  days  of  her  most 
rigid  morality,  Greece  had  seen  nothing  more  severely  moral  than 
was  the  life  of  Alfarabi.  "  A  barley-loaf,"  he  used  to  say,  "  a  spring 
of  water,  and  a  woollen  cloak,  are  preferable  to  joys  that  end  in  peni- 
tence." In  this  retirement,  he  found  a  source  of  unfailing  delight 
in  the  works  of  Aristotle,  which  he  is  said  to  have  perused  two  hun- 
dred times,  and  for  the  instruction  of  his  countrymen  to  have  made 
them  the  subject  of  sixty  distinct  treatises.  The  labour  might  be 
prodigal,  but  it  evinces,  what  it  is  important  to  know,  how  strongly 
this  species  of  Grecian  science  had  captivated  the  Arabian  mind. 
Alfarabi  was  likewise  a  musician,  who  composed,  and  accompanied 
his  compositions  on  the  lute.  In  the  court  of  the  sultan  of  Syria, 
while  the  singers  were  executing  one  of  these  pieces,  and  he  was 
playing,  the  audience,  by  an  irresistible  impulse,  burst  into  laughter. 
He  changed  the  piece,  when  every  eye  was  filled  with  tears  ;  but,  at 
the  third  change,  a  sudden  drowsiness  seized  the  assembly,  and  the 
sultan  nodded. 

About  the  same  period  of  time,  Al-Asshari,  in  order  to  explain 
the  nature  of  the  divine  decrees  and  their  influence  on  human 


THEIR  PHILOSOPHKRS.  427 

actions,  applied  the  subtle  reasoning  of  the  peripatetics  to  the  tenets 
of  Islamism,  and  dividing  its  professors,  established  a  theological  sect 
•which  soon  acquired  almost  an  universal  ascendancy.  His  books, 
like  the  texts  of  truth,  were  read  in  the  schools,  and  his  axioms  and 
verses  were  committed  to  memory. 

Another  great  man,  great  both  in  philosophy  and-  in  the  art  of 
healing,  was  Al-Razis,  a  Persian,  but  who  taught  and  practised  at 
Bagdad,  in  the  tenth  century,  who  has  been  celebrated  under  the 
appellation  of  the  Arabic  Galen.  He  afterwards  resided  at  the 
court  of  Corduba,  where  he  died,  leaving  behind  him  works  on  a 
great  variety  of  subjects :  but  it  is  said  that  he  chiefly  owed  his 
fame  to  the  Greeks,  in  whose  writings  he  was  well  versed. 

Al-Kazis  was  followed,  in  the  same  line,  by  his  still  more  cele- 
brated countryman  Avicenna,  whose  ardour  in  every  pursuit  of  phi- 
losophy, theology,  and  medicine,  has  been  described  by  himself.  He 
faithfully  committed  to  memory  the  lessons  of  the  Koran,  and  the 
metaphysical  books  of  the  Stagirite ;  and  he  mastered,  without  a 
guide,  the  theories  of  Euclid.  "  Afterwards,"  says  he,  "  repeating 
my  philosophical  studies,  when  difficulties  perplexed  me,  I  repaired 
to  the  temple,  where,  in  suppliant  prayer,  I  addressed  my  Maker, 
till  light  broke  in  upon  my  mind.  At  night  before  my  lamp  I  de- 
sisted not :  I  overcame  the  importunities  of  sleep,  and  finally  tri- 
umphed in  the  acquisition  of  almost  every  science." 

Yet  we  might  be  permitted  to  doubt  of  his  scientific  acquisitions, 
if  he  placed  much  reliance  on  heavenly  illumination,  or  the  aid  by 
natural  dreams  which  he  also  mentions.  It  was,  however,  a  great 
misfortune,  by  which  all  the  Arabian  students  suffered,  that,  them- 
selves ignorant  of  the  Greek  tongue,  they  relied  solely  on  translations, 
which,  as  it  was  afterwards  discovered,  were  in  general  extremely 
defective.  The  work  had  often  been  committed  to  Asiatic  Chris- 
tians, ill -versed  in  the  originals,  and  the  first  translation  was  not 
unfrequently  in  Syriac,  from  which  it  was  rendered  into  Arabic.1 
The  Arabian  philosophers  were  often  led  astray  by  these  unfaithful 
guides,  yet  they  were  enthusiastically  devoted  to  their  theories,  and 
no  one  more  than  Avicenna.  He  is  even  accused  in  all  his  works, 
whether  medical  or  philosophical,  of  having  stolen  from  the  Greeks 
•whatever  was  most  valuable,  and  of  having  stolen  without  judgment. 

Among  the  African  or  Moorish  Moslems,  in  the  twelfth  century, 
we  find  Kssichalli,  a  native  of  Sicily,  a  man  of  general  science,  but 
mast  celebrated  for  geographical  pursuits. 

On  this  subject  he  wrote  a  work  of  great  extent,  which  particularly 
engaged  the  attention  of  the  Norman  Roger,  count  of  Sicily,  who 
directed  it  to  be  translated  into  Latin,  and  who  earnestly,  but  in 
vain,  laboured  to  detain  Essachalli  near  his  person.  In  Spain  were 
Avenzoar  and  Thophail,  the  first,  by  the  rejection  of  useless  theories, 
deemed  the  rational  improver  of  Arabian  medicine  ;  the  second,  the 

1  See  Ep.  Heiiundot.  ud  Dacerium,  Bib.  G.  801,  i. 


428  OF    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

author  of  some  admired  works,  and  the  faithful  follower  of  Aristotle ; 
but  both  are  not  less  known  as  the  masters  of  the  great  Averroes. 

Averroes  was  born  at  Corduba,  in  the  twelfth  century,  where  he 
studied,  and  he  exercised  the  high  dignity  of  judge  and  pontiff,  but 
where,  for  having  attempted  to  unite  the  doctrines  of  Aristotle  with 
those  of  the  Koran,  and  to  explain  one  by  the  aid  of  the  other,  he 
was  accused  of  heresy,  deposed  from  his  office,  and  subjected  to  a 
series  of  vexatious  persecutions.  He  died  at  the  court  of  Morocco, 
and  was  in  part  restored  to  the  favour  of  his  sovereign  early  in  the 
following  century. 

The  virtues  of  Averroes  were  eminent,  his  administration  wise, 
his  application  to  philosophy  indefatigable,  and  so  laudable  were  the 
general  habits  of  his  life,  that  in  reading  the  anecdotes  which  are  re- 
corded of  him,  we  seem  to  be  carried  back  to  the  days  of  Socrates, 
and  once  more  to  contemplate  the  soul  of  the  latter  by  a  happy  me- 
tempsychosis, transfused  into  the  body  of  the  Arabian  sage.  On 
Aristotle  he  wrote  commentaries  so  famous,  as  to  have  acquired  for 
him,  Kar'  i%oxr)v,  the  name  of  the  commentator ;  and  he  expounded  the 
Republic  of  Plato,  though  Plato  seemed  less  to  attract  the  taste  of 
his  countrymen ;  and  he  undertook  a  general  Defence  of  the  cause 
of  philosophy,  though  it  has  been  observed  that  he  was  himself  im- 
perfectly conversant  with  its  genuine  principles,  as  they  had  been 
delivered  in  the  schools  of  Greece.  The  catalogue  of  his  works  in 
their  various  branches,  from  the  art  of  reasoning  to  that  of  music,  is 
numerous.  While  Averroes  was  viewed  by  his  contemporaries  and 
by  our  schoolmen  as  a  prodigy  of  science,  more  recent  critics  con- 
sider him  as  an  infatuated  admirer  of  Aristotle,  whose  works  he  did 
not  understand. 

Again,  in  the  same  twelfth  century,  but  at  an  earlier  period, 
flourished  Gazzali,  a  native  of  Asia,  and  a  man  of  uncommon  acquire- 
ments as  a  philosopher,  a  theologian,  a  jurist,  and  a  poet.  He  appeared 
at  Bagdad  about  the  time  when  the  great  college  was  finished,  on  which 
vast  sums  had  been  expended,  and  which  was  now  richly  endowed. 
Among  the  incredible  concourse  of  learned  men  assembled  for  the 
purpose  of  lecturing  on  every  branch  of  science,  Gazzali  was  without 
a  rival.  He  was  honoured  by  the  caliph,  courted  by  the  magistrates, 
whilst  his  lectures  were  attended  by  all  ranks  of  citizens.  Many 
years  passed  in  this  manner,  when  he  resigned  the  seat  of  honour, 
and  having  distributed  his  wealth  among  the  indigent,  and  put  on 
the  habit  of  a  pilgrim,  he  visited  Mecca,  Cairo,  and  Alexandria,  and 
finally  returned  to  Bagdad,  where  he  died  in  the  year  1111.  The 
works  of  Gazzali  are  very  numerous,  among  which  are  many  poetical 
compositions  on  amatory  and  moral  subjects.  The  historian1  observes 
that  the  latter  are  most  esteemed,  many  of  which  he  could  himself 
repeat,  but  which  though  most  elegant  in  their  native  language, 
could  not  easily  be  translated  into  Latin. 

1  Leo  Afric.  in  Bib.  G.  xiii.     See  also  Bib.  Orient. 


THEIR    PHILOSOPHERS.  429 

Though  the  names  of  more  than  ninety  other  philosophers,  with  an 
account  of  their  works,  lie  before  me,  it  may  be  sufficient  to  have 
selected  these  few,  which  will  clearly  show  the  scientific  zeal  of  the 
Arabians,  and  the  general  character  of  their  studies  after  they  had 
become  acquainted  with  the  philosophy  of  Greece.  But  though 
their  intellectual  faculties  were  thus  exercised,  no  light  was  thrown 
upon  those  topics  which  were  most  in  need  of  elucidation.  The 
absurdities  of  Islamism  retained  their  authority,  and  the  subtle  rea- 
sonings of  the  Peripatetic  school,  which  were  themselves  perverted 
by  endless  commentaries,  were  enlisted  into  its  service. 

The  philosophy  of  Greece,  as  it  was  cultivated  by  the  Arabians, 
had  lost  much  of  its  original  purity,  without  acquiring  any  additional 
value.  Satisfied  with  the  exercise  of  their  mental  powers  in  the  dis- 
cussion'of  abstruse  inquiries,  they  did  not  look  into  themselves  for 
the  evidence  of  first  principles  in  logic  or  in  metaphysics ;  and  treat- 
ing of  natural  effects,  they  did  not  consult  nature  herself  and  the 
experience  of  daily  observation.  But  utterly  deserted  as  philosophy 
now  was  by  the  Latins,  and  little  cultivated  as  it  was  by  the  Greeks, 
her  reception  by  the  Arabians  was  highly  fortunate.  For  with  them 
she  was  respected,  cherished,  caressed,  till  the  western  world  shook 
off  its  debasing  apathy,  and  invited  her  return.  When  she  did 
return,  she  was  loaded  with  the  cumbrous  garb  which  had  been 
thrown  over  her  by  the  united  labours  of  Grecian,  Syrian,  and 
Arabian  commentators ;  nor  can  we  be  surprised  that  when  appear- 
ing in  this  form,  she  should  have  given  rise  to  the  scholasticism  of 
our  middle  ages.  This  scholasticism  was  the  genuine  philosophy  of 
the  Arabian  schools  in  the  common  questions  of  human  research, 
and  accommodated  in  those  of  theology  to  the  specific  objects  of 
the  Christian  code.1  Surprised  we  must  be,  observes  Denina,2  when 
•we  learn  that  our  ancestors  derived  from  those  very  Mahometans 
whom  they  perpetually  reviled,  the  greater  part  of  the  doctrine 
which  during  many  ages  was  taught  in  the  Christian  schools.  Such 
was  the  doctrine  on  the  Divine  Being  and  his  attributes,  grace  and 
free  will,  human  actions,  virtue  and  vice,  eternal  punishment,  and 
Heaven.  Even  the  very  titles  of  the  works  of  the  Arabians  and  the 
schoolmen  on  these  subjects,  are  so  similar  as  to  induce  a  suspicion 
that  the  one  must  have  been  copied  from  the  other. 

Connected  with  the  philosophy  of  the  Arabians  were  their  views 
of  morals,  as  likewise  the  exercises  of  that  abstracted  piety  which  is 
known  under  the  name  of  Asceticism.  The  subjects  are  here  treated 
in  not  less  than  seventy-nine  volumes.  Their  ethical  writings 
abound  with  excellent  precepts,  such  as  that  in  the  eleventh  century 
by  Ebn  Abilnur,  a  Spaniard,  which  treats  of  the  duties  of  princes, 

1  Bib.  Arab.  Ilisp.  i.  J78 — 207. — On  this  subject  I  have  also  consulted 
the  learned  Brucker,  iii.  1 — 1 07,  and  Leo  Africanus,  de  Viris  Illust.  ap. 
Arnbes  in  Bib.  G.  xiii. 

*  Vicende  della  Lett.  i.  47. 


430  OF    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

showing  what  should  be  the  rule  of  their  administration,  what  the 
virtues  which  they  should  practise,  and  what  the  amusements  which 
may  be  permitted  as  a  relaxation  from  the  severe  offices  of  their 
state.  It  recommends  attention  to  agriculture,  to  the  arts,  and  to 
military  discipline.  It  then  describes  the  danger  which  menaced 
the  Spanish  monarchy  from  a  neglect  of  these  points,  when  no  regard 
was  paid  to  probity  and  learning ;  when  the  provinces  were  governed 
by  incapable  and  mercenary  agents ;  the  fields  were  uncultivated, 
and  their  arms  covered  with  rust ;  and  where  the  enemy  threatened, 
and  the  arts  despised ;  the  soldiers  enervated,  universal  consterna- 
tion prevailed.  The  work,  besides,  is  enlivened  by  anecdotes  and 
abundant  documents  drawn  from  Greek  and  Arabian  authors. 

The  works  on  general  morality,  containing  exhortations  to  virtue, 
the  beauty  of  which  is  often  delineated  with  the  glow  of  oriental 
colouring,  and  dissuasives  from  vice,  of  which  the  features  are  not 
less  forcibly  portrayed,  abound  with  apophthegms,  parables,  or 
stories  aptly  introduced  and  elegantly  told,  by  which  instruction  is 
instilled,  the  attention  kept  alive,  and  the  mind  amused.  This 
method  was  adopted  in  their  public  addresses  or  sermons  to  the 
people.  The  preacher,  having  returned  thanks  to  Heaven,  and  made 
a  profession  of  his  belief,  prayed  for  the  safety  of  the  reigning  prince, 
and  the  welfare  of  his  realm.  He  then  addressed  the  meeting, 
begging  that,  with  a  docile  heart,  they  would  give  ear  to  the  word  of 
God.  The  subject  was  next  proposed  and  enforced  by  texts  from 
the  Koran  and  the  authorities  of  sages  :  after  which  the  orator  in- 
veighed severely  against  vice,  and  exhorted  his  audience  to  the 
practice  of  virtue. 

On  the  ascetic,  that  is,  the  contemplative  or  monastic  life,  the 
Arabian  works  are  numerous.  Monasteries  were  early  established 
among  the  followers  of  Mahomet ;  and  the  duties  of  retirement  are 
often  described.  Hence  their  mystic  theology  seems  to  have  had  its 
rise.  The  Spaniard  Altai  wrote  many  treatises  on  this  subject,  in 
which  he  speaks  of  the  happiness  of  solitary  abstraction,  of  the  daily 
conferences  which  the  brotherhood  were  to  hold  respecting  their 
progress  in  virtue  and  the  chastisements  of  sin,  to  which  he  adds 
counsels  and  remedies  fitted  to  promote  the  acquisition  of  higher 
purity.  Another  author  treats  of  a  soul  given  up  to  contemplation, 
and  of  the  annihilation  and  repose  of  all  its  faculties,  on  attaining 
which  he  says  that  the  individual  is  admitted  to  the  participation  of 
the  sublimest  gifts  and  the  revelation  of  heavenly  mysteries.  In  a 
third  work  on  the  method  of  contemplation,  entitled  the  Book  of 
Revelations,  the  abstraction  of  the  mind  from  the  body  and  all 
terrene  objects  is  mentioned,  a  state  to  which  it  is  observed,  that 
many  monks  arrived,  and  in  which,  by  a  total  alienation  from  earth, 
they  remained  dead  to  the  impressions  of  sense.1 

But  I  am  insensibly  drawn  from  the  object  of  this  inquiry ;  for 

»  Bib.  Arab.  Hisp.  i.  208—233. 


HONAIN.  431 

however  elegantly  these  things  may  be  treated  in  the  pliant  versa- 
tility of  the  Arabic  tongue,  they  have  no  connexion  with  literature. 

1  have  already  spoken  of  medicine,  as  combined  in  many  eminent 
Arabians  with  the  study  of  philosophy ;  but  the  subject  demands 
some  further  consideration.  The  art  of  healing,  in  its  simplest  form, 
must  have  been  coeval  with  the  existence  of  man ;  but  as  maladies, 
from  change  of  climate,  from  intemperance,  and  from  other  causes, 
increased,  it  became  more  complicated,  and  required  more  study. 
The  high  antiquity  of  their  origin  may  incline  us  to  believe  that  the 
Arabians,  the  Egyptians,  and  other  natives  of  the  Asiatic  regions, 
were,  from  the  earliest  times,  addicted  to  the  practice  of  medicine  : 
but  accounts  show,  that  as  late  as  Mahomet  little  encouragement 
was  given,  at  least  to  strangers,  and  that  the  general  temperance 
which  prevailed  among  his  followers  afforded  few  occasions  for  the 
exercise  of  medical  skill.  But  no  sooner  had  the  love  of  Grecian 
science  seized  the  Arabian  mind,  than  it  was  directed  with  ardour  to 
the  medical  writers  of  that  country.  Some  of  these,  with  their  phi- 
losophers, were  translated  during  the  auspicious  caliphate  of  Almamon; 
and  the  same  important  work  was  continued  by  a  succession  of  other 
translators,  among  whom  Ilonain  Ebn  Isac  occupied  a  conspicuous 
place. 

Ilonain,  who  was  a  Christian  and  a  physician,  flourished  at  Bag- 
dad about  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century,  some  years  later  than  the 
son  of  Mesuach,  of  whom  I  spoke,  and  of  whom  he  is  said  to  have 
been  the  pupil.  To  perfect  himself  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Greek 
language,  he  had  travelled  into  that  country,  where  he  had  conversed 
with  the  learned,  and  read  the  works  of  their  celebrated  writers. 
Thence  he  proceeded  to  Basora,  which  was  distinguished  by  the 
purity  of  its  Arabic  dialect ;  and  on  his  return  to  Bagdad  was 
invited  by  the  reigning  caliph  to  undertake,  as  his  master  had  done, 
the  translation  of  Greek  authors,  and,  like  him,  to  superintend  the 
work  of  other  labourers  in  the  same  line.  He  himself  relates  with 
what  caution  he  executed  his  own  task :  that  in  the  text  he  made  no 
alterations,  but  after  the  most  mature  reflection  ;  and  that  in  obscure 
and  ambiguous  passages  he  consulted  various  copies,  and  conferred 
with  learned  men.  Skilled  as  he  was  in  the  powers  of  both  languages, 
and  advancing  with  such  deliberate  care,  Ilonain  must  have  dis- 
charged his, office  with  fidelity;  and  had  his  example  been  followed, 
I  do  not  see  with  what  justness  the  Arabic  versions  can  be  gene- 
rally censured  as  barbarous  and  inaccurate.  It  seems,  however, 
that  the  translations  which  were  made  by  Ilonain  or  his  master  from 
the  Greek  sources  were  comparatively  few,  and  that  Syriac  was  the 
most  ordinary  channel  through  which  the  versions  were  executed. 
This  was  the  language  principally  understood  by  the  Christians 
employed  about  the  court  of  Bagdad.  Into  this  they  translated,  at 
the  same  time,  often,  as  we  may  confidently  affirm,  without  being 
themselves  well  skilled  in  the  Greek  originals.  Hence  the  errors 
which  they  committed  would  not  fail  to  be  perpetuated,  as  they  pass 


432  OF    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

first  into  the  Arabic,  and  then,  with  additional  corruptions,  into  the 
early  Latin  versions  of  the  Christian  schools.1 

The  work  by  which  Honain  is  best  known  as  a  translator,  was 
TJie  .Aphorisms  of  Hippocrates,  with  the  Commentaries  of  Galen ;  but 
beside  this  and  other  valuable  versions,  he  produced  many  volumes 
of  original  composition,  and  principally  on  the  art  in  which  he  ex- 
celled. 

In  perusing  the  list  of  more  than  a  hundred  volumes,  I  find  the 
name  of  Ebn  Albaithar,  a  Moorish  Spaniard,  who  was  renowned  for 
his  medical  and  botanical  science,  and  the  polished  elegance  of  his 
style.  His  vast  erudition  was  strengthened  by  an  extensive  practice, 
which  had  left  nothing  unexplored  that  nature  presented  and  his 
predecessors  amongst  the  Greeks  and  Arabians  had  investigated.  In 
order  to  enlarge  his  botanical  knowledge,  he  traversed  many  regions 
of  the  west  of  Africa  and  Asia.  He  was  everywhere  honoured  in 
his  journey ;  and  when  stationary,  was  not  unfrequently  invested 
with  the  highest  dignities.  Albaithar  passed  some  years  in  the  court 
of  Saladin,  the  worthy  antagonist  of  our  Richard,  after  whose  death 
he  returned  into  Spain,  and  died  at  Malaga  about  the  year  1197. 
His  principal  work  treats  of  the  Virtues  of  Plants.  He  wrote  also  on 
poisons,  on  metals,  and  on  animals. 

Contemporary  with  Albaithar,  as  also  with  Averroes,  was  the  Jew 
Maimonides,  a  native  of  Corduba.  He  had  derived  from  the  study 
of  the  ancients  great  stores  of  knowledge  in  the  mathematics,  medi- 
cine, and  other  arts ;  and  he  was  reckoned  profoundly  learned  in  the 
peculiar  tenets  of  his  own  faith.  But  on  one  occasion  he  renounced 
this  faith  through  fear,  and  conformed  to  that  of  Mahomet.  Soon 
afterwards  he  quitted  Spain,  and  retiring  into  Egypt,  resumed  his 
former  creed,  and  published  works  on  various  subjects.  Those  on 
medicine,  in  particular,  were  much  read.  His  brethren  of  the  Jewish 
persuasion  looked  up  to  him  as  a  sage  ;  and  he  was  much  esteemed 
by  Averroes  and  other  learned  Moors.2 

I  will  mention  another  Spanish  Jew,  Abraham  Ibnu  Sahal,3  who 
is  ranked  among  scientific  men,  but  was  more  celebrated  for  his  songs 
or  lyric  compositions.  The  sweetness  of  these  caused  them  to  be  much 
admired ;  but  the  elders  complained  of  their  immoral  tendency,  and 
exerted  themselves  to  check  their  circulation.  Their  exertions  were 
in  vain.  "  There  is  not  a  man,"  it  was  observed  to  th£  supreme 
judge,  "  nor  a  woman,  nor  a  child,  in  the  city  of  Corduba,  who  can- 
not repeat  by  heart  these  songs  of  Abraham  Ibnu  Sahal."  "  My  sin- 
gle hand,  then,"  he  replied,  "  is  not  able  to  close  the  mouths  of  thou- 
sands ;"  but  he  predicted  that  ruin  must  soon  fall  on  a  people  whose 
attention  could  be  engaged  by  such  trifles,  and  whose  mariners  were 


1  Ep.  Renandoti  ad  Dacerium,  Bib.  G.  i.  et  de  barbaricis  Aristotelis  ver- 
sionibus,  ibid.  xii. 

1  Leo.  Afric.  de  Medicis  et  Philos.  Hebreeis,  Bib.  G.  xiii.  2  Ibid 


WRITERS    ON    NATURAL    HISTORY.  433 

thus  corrupted.  In  order  to  silence  the  tongue  of  the  corrupter, 
recourse,  it  is  said,  was  had  to  poison.  Ibnu  Sahal  died  in  1245. 

Having  spoken  of  the  Jews,  I  will  further  observe  of  them,  that  in 
these  times  of  Saracenic  splendour,  they,  equally  with  the  Christians, 
recommended  themselves  to  notice  by  the  profession  of  menial  arts, 
by  their  knowledge  of  languages  acquired  in  travelling,  and  by  their 
traffic  in  books.  Their  acquirements,  except  in  the  lucrative  art  of 
medicine,  were  generally  slender ;  but  as  the  Arabians,  in  the  pride 
of  superiority,  disdained  the  drudgery  of  learning  languages,  even 
that  very  Greek  to  which  they  were  so  much  indebted,  recourse  be- 
came necessary  to  foreign  aid. 

I  quit  this  subject  of  medicine  with  some  reluctance,  as  it  abounds 
with  many  interesting  anecdotes,  and  evinces  the  ardour  of  the 
Arabians  in  its  pursuit.  It  also  not  only  shows  what  progress  they 
had  made,  but  indicates  the  prevailing  maladies,  and  the  medicines 
•which  were  most  generally  prescribed.  Xature  seems  to  have  been 
their  principal  guide,  and  they  applied  such  helps  as  she  offered  from 
her  vegetable  stores.1  This  leads  me  to  the  next  topic,  which  is  im- 
mediately connected  with  the  preceding. 

As  Albiathar,  treading  in  the  steps  of  the  Grecian  Dioscorides, 
and  supplying  by  his  comments  what  the  latter  had  omitted,  or  had 
not  known,  laid  open  to  his  countrymen  the  secret  recesses  of  nature 
in  her  metals,  plants,  and  animals,  as  more  directly  subservient  to 
the  healing  art  which  he  professed,  we  might  justly  infer,  without  fur- 
ther inquiry,  that  what  has  been  called  the  History  of  Nature,  formed 
likewise  a  part  of  Arabic  science.  But  this  we  learn  from  works 
written  expressly  on  the  subject.  The  richness  and  amenity  of  the 
productions  of  nature  displayed  in  the  various  regions  which  had 
been  subjected  by  the  Moslem  arms,  and  were  now  occupied  in  tran- 
quil possession,  could  not  fail  to  allure  the  attention  of  every  curious 
observer.  Much  fewer  volumes,  indeed,  here  present  themselves, 
(not  more  than  ten)  ;  but  these  few  are  interesting  and  comprehen- 
sive. And  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  flames,  which  in  1671  con- 
sumed so  considerable  a  portion  of  the  Escurial  collection,  preyed  on 
this  department  with  more  unsparing  rage. 

Algiaheth  composed  a  book  on  animals,  in  which  he  drew  some 
materials  from  Aristotle  and  the  works  of  others ;  but,  as  late  ns  the 
fourteenth  century,  Abilphath  Ebn  Alderaiham  treated  the  subject 
more  in  detail,  describing  the  natures,  the  dispositions,  the  properties 
of  quadrupeds,  birds,  fish,  and  insects.  I  find  also  an  elaborate 
treatise  on  horses  (which  is  always  a  favourite  subject  with  the  Ara- 
bians,) and  another  on  hmvkiiig  and  hunting,  which  is  replete  with 
many  curious  inquiries.  The  authors  of  these  works  were  Spaniards. 
A  work  by  Albiruni  on  Gems  is  much  praised.  He  was  a  Persian 
in  the  eleventh  century,  and  the  author  of  many  works  of  deep  eru- 
dition. Dissatisfied  with  his  domestic  literature,  he  travelled  for 

1    Lib.  Arab.  Hi^i.  i.  234—317. 

F  P 


434  OF    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

forty  years  into  different  countries,  exploring  the  treasures  of  Greece 
and  the  more  ancient  monuments  of  Asia.  He  protracted  his  stay 
in  India ;  and  whilst  he  drew  from  the  communications  of  its  sages 
the  maxims  of  their  primitive  discipline,  he,  in  return,  laid  before 
them  the  philosophy  of  the  Grecian  schools.  No  one,  says  the  histo- 
rian of  his  life,  at  that  time  equalled  him  in  science,  particularly  in 
the  knowledge  of  the  stars,  and  no  one  has  since  been  his  equal.  In 
great  and  minute  inquiries  he  was  alike  transcendent. 

But  a  work  of  the  greatest  utility,  and  which  is  not  less  an  object 
of  curiosity,  is  a  treatise  on  Agriculture,  by  the  Spaniard  Ebn  Aluam. 
He  lived  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  is  said  to  have  been  illustrious 
by  his  birth  and  by  his  learning.  Few  writers  seem  to  have  taken 
a  more  comprehensive  view  of  the  subject ;  and  it  is  rendered  more 
valuable  by  extracts  from  Oriental,  Greek,  African,  Arabian,  and 
Latin  authors,  whose  observations  on  the  culture  of  land,  and  on 
other  analogous  points,  he  endeavours  to  accommodate  to  the  soil 
and  climate  of  Spain.  The  work  is  divided  into  thirty-four  chap- 
ters, in  which,  besides  the  agriculturist,  the  objects  of  whose  atten- 
tion are  principally  detailed,  the  horticulturist  and  the  florist  will  find 
ample  entertainment.  Many  parts  of  natural  history  are  likewise 
curiously  examined,  and  the  whole  will  show  the  singular  assiduity 
with  which  the  Moorish  Spaniards  devoted  themselves  to  agriculture, 
what  progress  they  had  made,  and  what  were  the  grains,  the  fruits, 
the  flowers  which  were  then  generally  grown.  They  are  said  to 
have  naturalized  in  Spain  the  indigenous  products  of  Africa  and  of 
more  eastern  soils ;  but  many  of  these  are  no  longer  to  be  found. 
They  migrated  with  their  masters,  or  rather,  when  no  longer  fostered 
by  their  patient  vigilance  and  tender  care,  they  languished  and  died 
away.  The  Arabian  annals  record  astonishing  instances  of  the  fer- 
tility and  population  of  the  Spanish  provinces,  when  the  kings  of 
Granada  alone,  for  their  own  use  and  the  purposes  of  war,  could  lead 
out  a  hundred  thousand  horse,  and  double  that  number  of  men  were 
sometimes  marshalled  in  battle  against  their  Christian  foes.1 

Some  part,  and  before  this  time,  probably,  the  whole  of  the  above 
treatise  has  been  translated  into  Spanish,  by  the  librarian  of  the 
Escurial.2 

Though  the  genius  of  the  Arabians  accommodated  its  powers 
with  wonderful  pliability  to  every  scientific  pursuit,  it  was  in  the 
more  abstruse  researches,  as  the  character  of  its  philosophy  has 
already  evinced,  in  which  it  seemed  principally  to  delight.  We  have 
seventy-eight  volumes  on  Mathematical  subjects. 

Albategni  was  celebrated  for  his  astronomical  science,  as  were 
many  others  ;  and  in  geometry,  arithmetic,  algebraical  calculations, 
and  the  theory  of  music,  we  have  a  long  list,  Asiatic  and  Spanish, 
with  a  concise  notice  of  their  lives  and  principal  writings.  The 
works  of  Ptolemy  also  exercised  the  ingenuity  of  the  Arabians  ; 

1  Bib.  Arab.  Hisp.  i.  318—338.  *  Ibid.  323. 


ASTROLOGY.  435 

while  Alchindi,  as  far  as  we  may  be  allowed  to  judge  from  his 
multifarious  volumes,  traversed  the  whole  circle  of  the  sublimer 
sciences.  But  judicial  astrology,  or  the  art  of  foretelling  future 
events  from  the  position  and  influences  of  the  stars,  was  with  them 
a  favourite  pursuit ;  and  many  of  their  philosophers,  incited  by 
various  motives,  dedicated  all  their  labours  to  this  futile  but  lucrative 
inquiry.  They  often  speak  with  high  commendation  of  the  iatro- 
mathematical  discipline,  which  could  control  the  disorders  to  which 
man  was  subject,  and  regulate  the  events  of  life. 

The  tenets  of  Islamism,  which  inculcate  an  unreserved  submission 
to  the  over-ruling  destinies  of  heaven,  are  evidently  adverse  to  the 
Ics-ons  of  astrology  ;  but  the  terrors  of  superstition,  the  anxious 
fears  which  futurity  generates,  and  the  ascendency  exercised  by  craft 
over  the  weakness  of  credulity,  have  at  all  times  proved  a  more 
than  equal  match  for  plain  sense  and  sober  calculation.  Nor,  when 
we  look  into  the  histories  of  nations,  even  deemed  enlightened, 
should  we  be  justified  in  concluding  that  the  Arabians  were  but 
superficially  instructed,  because  they  listened  to  astrological  pre- 
dictions, and  gave  credit  to  the  supposed  efficacy  of  amulets  and 
talismans. 

From  the  Greeks,  still  in  search  of  science,  the  Arabs  turned  their 
attention  to  the  books  of  the  sages  who  are  esteemed  the  primitive 
instructors  of  mankind,  among  whom  Hermes  was  deemed  the  first. 
They  mention  the  works  written  by  him,  or  rather  by  them,  as  they 
suppose,  after  other  authors,  that  there  were  three  of  the  name.  To 
one  the  imposing  appellation  of  Trismegistus  has  been  given  ;  and 
the  Arabians,  from  some  ancient  records,  we  may  presume,  minutely 
describe  his  character  and  person.  They  also  published,  as  illustra- 
tive of  their  astrological  discipline,  some  writings  ascribed  to  the 
Persian  Zoroaster,  of  whom  they  relate  that  he  foretold  to  his 
countrymen,  that  in  the  latter  days,  a  virgin  would  conceive  a  son, 
and  that  a  star  would  appear  at  his  birth.  "  And  you,  my  children," 
he  added,  "  you,  of  all  nations,  will  first  perceive  its  rising,  which, 
when  you  perceive,  go  whither  it  shall  lead  you,  and  offering  to  him 
your  gifts,  adore  the  child,  for  he  is  the  word  that  made  the 
heavens."1 

In  their  researches  into  the  secrets  of  nature,  we  shall  not  be 
surprised  to  find  the  Arabians  engaged  in  the  wild  speculations  of 
alchemy,  and  busy  in  the  pursuit  of  the  philosopher's  stone.  All 
nations  have  pursued  their  way  to  improvement  through  these 
intellectual  aberrations. 

But  however  fondly  they  pursued  these  subjects,  and  others  of  a 
like  character,  the  major  part  of  the  Arabic  writings  abound  with 
sound  and  instructive  learning,  of  which  the  Spaniards  seem  to  have 
possessed  an  ample  share.  They  repeated  all  that  Archimedes  and 

1  The  passage  is  from  Abulpharagius  (Dynast.  Hist.  04),  an  Arabian, 
indeed,  but  also  a  Christian,  who  wrote  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

F  F  2 


436  OF    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

Apollonius  Pergaeus  had  taught,  with  many  additional  illustrations  ; 
and  they  translated  and  commented  upon  the  Elements  of  Euclid, 
and  every  other  work  which  had  been  famous  in  Greece.  At  the 
same  time  they  were  far  from  being  deficient  in  original  authors,  of 
•whom  eighty-seven  are  mentioned  as  having  distinguished  them- 
selves in  the  various  branches  of  mathematics  or  astronomy.  Even 
instruments  for  the  prosecution  of  the  latter  science  were  invented 
or  perfected  by  them.1 

Nor  let  me  forget  to  mention,  how  much  we  are  indebted  to  the 
Arabians  for  facilitating  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  arithmetic. 
The  Romans  were  not  great  proficients  in  the  science  of  numbers  ; 
and  the  Greeks  themselves,  though  much  more  advanced,  were  not 
masters  of  the  art,  though  it  is  probable  that  their  writings  fur- 
nished the  principles  on  which  the  Arabians  improved. 

I  pass  over,  as  of  little  interest,  the  two  hundred  and  sixty 
volumes  on  Jurisprudence,  that  is,  on  the  laws  civil  and  canonical ; 
as  likewise  the  many  commentaries  on,  and  illustrations  of  the  text 
of  the  Koran.*  On  this  extraordinary  performance,  as  remarkable 
for  its  low  and  extravagant  effusions,  as  for  the  simple  truth  and 
sublimity  of  many  passages,  I  have  not,  I  think,  observed  that,  in 
point  of  time,  it  is  the  first  Arabian  composition  in  prose  of  which 
we  have  any  account.  By  whomever  it  was  compiled,  its  inco- 
herence and  want  of  order  clearly  show  that  the  presiding  mind  was 
actuated  by  a  vivid  and  ardent  imagination,  uncontrolled  by  rules, 
and  unacquainted  with  the  severe  canons  of  composition  ;  in  other 
words,  the  whole  context  of  the  Koran  proves  that  its  author  was  a 
genuine  Arabian.  Still  the  elegance  and  purity  of  its  language,  in 
the  dialect  of  the  tribe  of  Koreish,  are  universally  admitted  ;  and  it  is 
deemed  the  standard  of  the  Arabic  tongue,  while  the  more  orthodox 
maintain  that  it  cannot  be  imitated  by  any  human  pen.  To  this 
harmony  of  expression  and  easy  flow  of  style,  they  who  know  how 
to  value  the  powerful  efficacy  of  words  have  sometimes  ascribed  the 
persuasive  influence  of  the  Koran  upon  the  Asiatic  mind,  in  spite  of 
all  its  incredible  absurdities. 

Under  the  same  head  as  above  mentioned  may  without  hesitation 
be  also  classed  what  are  called  dogmatical  and  scholastic  works, 
though  the  titles  of  some  and  the  contents  of  others  may  be  deemed 
curious.3  And  from  the  whole  of  these  multifarious  inquiries  the 
truth  of  the  general  position  is  more  confirmed,  that  the  genius  as 
well  as  the  language  of  the  Arabians  was  adapted  to  every  subject. 

But  of  all  subjects  the  most  entertaining,  geography  and  his- 
tory, remain  to  be  considered.  The  Arabian  conquerors  pos- 
sessed many  extensive  and  fertile  regions  of  the  earth,  which 
resounded  with  the  wars  and  achievements  of  their  caliphs  and 

i  Bib.  Arab.  Hisp.  i.  339 — 444. 
*   See  Sale's  Prelim.  Disc.  79. 
3  Bib.  ArabxHisp.  i.  440—541. 


GEOGRAPHY.  437 

generals.  The  first  would  lead  to  descriptions,  from  which  geo- 
graphy would  take  its  rise;  and  the  second  would  call  up  the 
genius  of  history.  Hence,  among  their  writers,  we  find  some 
delineating  the  situation  of  lands,  the  climates  of  countries,  the  forms 
of  cities,  the  characters  and  manners  of  people ;  whilst  others  ai'e  no 
less  sedulously  employed  in  recording  the  rise  of  kingdoms,  the 
series  of  events,  the  administration  of  governments,  the  good  and 
bad  conduct  of  rulers,  and  the  lives  of  men  renowned  for  their  virtue, 
their  wisdom,  or  their  learning. 

Under  the  first  head  we  cannot  but  regret  the  paucity  of  volumes, 
which  do  not  exceed  seven,  and  which  seems  owing  to  the  fatal 
accident  which  has  been  mentioned.  But  some  compensation  is 
said  to  be  made  by  their  importance. 

In  the  thirteenth  century,  Alcazuini,  a  Persian,  published  a  work 
highly  esteemed,  entitled  The  Wonders  of  Nations,  in  which,  having 
himself  surveyed  the  greater  part  of  Africa  and  Asia,  he  gives  the 
names  of  countries,  islands,  cities,  mountains,  and  rivers,  with  their 
situations  and  descriptions  ;  in  which  accuracy  of  delineation  is  said 
to  vie  with  elegance  of  style.  He  then  proceeds,  in  the  same  fulness 
of  information,  to  describe  the  religion,  the  institutions,  the  man- 
ners, the  governments,  the  arts,  the  trades  and  commerce  of  each 
nation,  introducing  an  account  of  the  more  rare  vegetables,  metals, 
gems,  and  fossils,  with  an  account,  no  less  studiously  laboured,  of 
quadrupeds,  birds,  and  fishes.  What  his  own  observation  did  not 
supply  he  drew  from  the  best  records,  so  that  the  work  may  be  con- 
sidered as  a  repository,  not  of  geographical  science  only,  but  of 
natural  and  civil  history.1 

Of  the  other  writers  "on  geography,  particular  and  general,  four  are 
Spaniards  ;  and  of  all  it  is  observed,  that  they  often  create  difficulties 
by  their  manner  of  giving  the  names  of  towns  and  cities,  so  different 
from  those  used  by  the  Greeks  and  Latins.  Some  of  them  also 
(which  is  no  reproach  to  geographical  authors)  do  little  more  than 
copy  their  predecessors  in  the  same  line,  particularly  the  anonymous 
writer  or  writers  of  what  is  called  the  Nubian  Geography,  who  are 
supposed  to  have  copied  and  to  have  abridged,  under  this  title,  the 
greater  work  of  Aldrisi.  Aldrisi,  of  royal  descent,  wrote  in  the 
twelfth  century ;"  and  however  valuable  his  work  may  be  deemed 
in  the  estimation  of  the  learned,  that  of  the  Nubian  abbreviator, 
more  than  once  translated,  has  been  much  praised.  His  description 
of  the  world  in  general,  and  of  Asia,  Africa,  and  Spain,  is  said  to 
merit  high  commendation,  while  the  purity  of  his  Arabic  has  never 
been  surpass* M!. 

I  may  here  introduce  some  account  of  Leo  Africanus,  whom  I 

1  A  Latin  epitome  of  this  valuable  work,  by  Cosiri,  was  ready  for  the 
press  in  1770. 

-  Aldrisi  seems  to  have  been  the  same  person  as  £ssachalli  before  men 
tioned. 


438  OF    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

have  more  than  once  quoted  as  the  author  of  the  Lives  of  certain 
Arabian  Philosophers.  He  was  a  native  of  Granada,  which  he 
quitted  in  1492,  at  the  time  of  the  capture  of  that  city  by  Ferdi- 
nand, king  of  Arragon,  and  withdrew  into  Africa,  whence  came  the 
name  of  Africanus.  To  this  was  afterwards  added  that  of  Leo, 
when,  after  various  peregrinations,  on  a  visit  to  Rome  during  the 
pontificate  of  the  illustrious  prelate  who  bore  that  name  (Leo  X.), 
he  conformed  to  the  Christian  faith.  He  was  much  caressed  by  the 
pontiff;  but  he  returned  to  Africa,  where  he  again  embraced  the 
tenets  of  the  Koran.  He  fixed  his  residence  at  Tunis,  where  he 
compiled  his  Description  of  Africa,  a  work  which  contains  much 
curious  matter,  and  which,  I  think,  I  have  somewhere  read  that  he 
himself  translated  into  Italian. 

Though  it  is  very  foreign  to  my  subject,  I  shall,  I  trust,  be  ex- 
cused if  I  briefly  notice  that  the  mention  of  gunpowder  as  in  use 
among  the  Arabians,  is  introduced  by  the  Egyptian  geographer  Ebn 
Fadhl,  who  lived  about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century.  It  is 
well  known  that  the  Greeks  and  Romans  made  use  of  burning  darts 
and  other  heated  weapons  which  were  thrown  by  machines  or  by 
the  hand.  Ebn  Fadhl  thus  mentions  the  warlike  instruments  of  his 
own  time  :  "  Bodies  in  the  form  of  scorpions,  bound  round  and  filled 
with  nitrous  powder,  glide  along,  making  a  gentle  noise,  then  ex- 
ploding, they  lighten,  as  it  were,  and  burn.  But  there  are  others 
which,  cast  into  the  air,  stretch  along  like  a  cloud,  roaring  horribly 
as  thunder  roars,  and  on  all  sides  vomiting  out  flames,  burst,  burn, 
and  reduce  to  cinders  whatever  comes  in  their  way."  Other  accounts 
rather  more  recent  prove  that  this  tremendous  powder,  whether 
derived  from  the  Chinese  or  Indians,  was  known  to  the  Saracens, 
and  used  by  them  in  their  wars  long  before  the  age  of  its  supposed 
discovery  in  Europe. 

It  is  with  more  pleasure  that  I  notice  the  mention  of  the  use  of 
paper  amongst  the  Arabians  as  early  as  the  eighth  century.  It  was 
manufactured  of  linen  or  silk,  and  it  is  presumed  that  they  derived 
the  art  from  the  Persians  or  the  more  oriental  Indians,  who  excelled 
in  penmanship,  and  whose  ink  and  other  colours  possessed  a  peculiar 
lustre.1 

The  important  article  of  history  still  remains ;  but  before  I  speak 
more  at  length  on  the  three  eminent  writers,  best  known'  in  Europe 
by  the  names  of  Abulpharagius,  Abulfeda,  and  Bohadin,  I  shall  first 
review  the  contents  of  the  hundred  and  seventy-seven  volumes  which 
close  the  labours  of  the  Escurial  librarian. 

No  subject  with  which  the  arms  or  arts  of  the  Arabian  conquerors, 
through  the  whole  extent  of  their  various  territories,  were  connected, 
and  on  which  the  pen  of  history  could  be  employed,  seems  to  have 
been  left  unnoticed  by  their  writers.  In  India  and  in  Persia,  in 
Africa  and  in  Spain,  we  find  them  indefatigable  in  collecting  infor- 

1  Bib.  Arab.  Hisp.  ii.  1 — 14. 


HISTORY.  439 

mation,  and  where  their  own  researches  failed,  carefully  transcribing 
from  the  works  of  others.  It  has  been  remarked  that  the  Spanish 
Arabians  travelled  much;  and  this  circumstance,  as  it  enlarged  their 
sphere  of  knowledge,  gave  a  peculiar  variety  and  richness  to  their 
language.  The  learned  are  agreed  in  this  favourable  opinion  of  the 
Moorish  dialect. 

Abi  Nassar,  Abu  Said,  and  Alnovairi,  in  different  ages  of  the 
Hegira,  and  themselves  from  different  countries,  undertook  to  treat 
of  General  Hixtory,  and  the  work  of  the  last  writer  is  peculiarly 
comprehensive.  His  researches  are  carried  far  back  into  antiquity, 
while  in  more  modern  times  they  descend  from  the  kings  of  Persia, 
Alexander  the  Great,  and  the  Ptolemies,  his  successors,  the  Assyrian 
and  Roman  emperors,  and  the  events  of  Africa  and  the  west,  to  our 
thirteenth  century.  This  work  of  Alnovairi,  in  ten  volumes,  is  much 
valued  by  the  Arabians.  Under  the  same  head  may  be  classed 
many  biographical  works,  particularly  that  of  Ebn  Khalcan,  a  Syrian, 
in  the  same  century,  who  gives  an  account  in  alphabetical  order  of 
the  lives  of  Mussulmans  of  every  age  and  nation,  illustrious  in  war 
or  in  peace,  and  distinguished  by  their  literary  attainments  or  their 
civil  virtues. 

Whilst  their  attention  was  thus  captivated  by  subjects  in  some 
degree  remote,  Arabia,  the  common  parent  of  all,  was  not  likely  to 
be  neglected,  and  various  are  the  volumes  which  minutely  relate 
or  particularly  describe  whatever  belonged  to  its  history,  its  an- 
tiquities, its  inhabitants,  its  language,  its  soil,  and  its  products.  But 
this  has  already  been  sufficiently  mentioned.  Even  horses  had  their 
genealogists  and  historians. 

From  Arabia,  in  the  descriptions  of  which,  Mecca,  as  may  well  be 
imagined,  often  detains  the  reader,  we  are  carried  by  other  writers 
into  Persia,  and  even  to  Ethiopia.  The  celebrated  Alsiuthi,  an 
Egyptian,  who  has  before  been  mentioned,  in  the  long  catalogue  of  his 
scientific  writings,  has  a  work  of  great  elegance,  entitled  the  Ethiopic 
Triumph,  which  gives  the  history  of  that  degraded  nation,  and  re- 
counts the  many  good  qualities  of  which  he  deemed  them  possessed. 
He  attempts  also  to  investigate  the  cause  of  that  colour  which  has 
been  the  source  of  their  misery,  and  states  the  opinions  of  other 
writers. 

Tin-  same  author,  with  a  filial  fondness,  has  illustrated  the  history 
of  Egypt,  the  country  of  his  nativity,  and  he  mentions  the  names  of 
fifty  other  writers  who  had  treated  the  same  subject.  That  primitive 
nursery  of  science  could  never  want  a  champion  to  announce  its 
praises;  and  as  Cairo,  which  owed  its  foundation  to  the  Saracens,  was 
become  the  seat  of  government,  and  the  Arabians  were  greatly  in- 
debted to  the  schools  of  Alexandria1  for  the  rich  stores  of  Grecian 
literature  which  they  now  possessed,  gratitude  as  well  as  other 
motives  would  naturally  prftnpt  them  to  make  some  return  in  the 
history  of  its  present  greatness,  and  the  lives  of  its  learned  citizens. 

'  See  Matter's  Treatise  on  the  School  of  Alexandria. 


440     OF  THE  ARABIAN  OR  SARACENIC  LEARNING. 

The  historians  of  the  many  states  which  stretch  along  the  northern 
coast  of  Africa,  particularly  of  the  kingdom  of  Morocco,  are  nu- 
merous, in  which  I  find  the  series  of  their  princes  in  various  dynas- 
ties detailed,  the  cities  and  manners  of  their  inhabitants  described, 
and  not  unfrequently  the  names  and  writings  of  their  learned  men 
enumerated.  Fez  was  founded  in  the  second,  Morocco  in  the  fifth 
century  of  the  Hegira — of  the  splendour  of  which  we  have  magnifi- 
cent accounts.  It  seems  certain  that  many  ef  their  princes  were 
great  patrons  of  learning,  of  which  we  have  some  proof  in  the  exten- 
sive libraries  which  they  collected. 

The  history  of  the  Caliphs  was  a  favourite  subject  with  the 
Arabian  writers.1  In  the  praises  of  Mahomet  they  are  never  silent ; 
and  it  must  be  allowed  that  his  achievements,  and  those  of  the 
caliphs,  his  vicars  and  successors,  were  many  of  them  sufficiently 
striking  to  awaken  the  feelings  of  the  poet,  and  to  swell  the  note  of 
fame.  I  have  besides  observed  that  when  there  were  no  more  king- 
doms to  conquer,  or  rather  when  their  ambition  was  satiated  and 
Bagdad  was  founded,  the  new  dynasty  of  the  Abassides  turned  their 
thoughts  to  the  more  tranquil  pursuits  of  science.  "  They  could  pass," 
says  one  of  their  historians,  "  the  cheerful  hours  of  leisure  with  men 
of  learning  and  taste."  And  these  men,  or  men  like  these,  have 
been  careful  to  record  their  generous  patronage,  and,  with  a  copious 
enumeration  of  the  events  of  their  reigns,  to  transmit  an  account  of 
their  domestic  habits,  of  the  virtues  by  which  they  were  most  cha- 
racterised, and  of  the  wise  or  agreeable  sayings  which  fell  from  their 
lips.  In  these  narrations,  which  are  peculiarly  their  own,  the  beauty 
of  the  Arabic  language  is  unrivalled. 

But  certainly  it  may  be  lamented,  says  Ockley,  while  they  draw 
from  many  sources  of  science,  that  the  Arabians  did  not  learn  the 
Greek  language,  and  study  Herodotus,  Thucydides,  Xenophon,  and 
other  masters  of  correct  writing  whose  works  lay  open  before  them. 
Then  might  we  have  expected  a  succession  of  such  historians  as 
would  have  been  worthy  to  record  the  actions  which  their  heroes 
achieved.  But  to  that  object  they  never  turned  their  thoughts, 
valuing  no  language  and  no  style  of  writing  but  their  own.  In  the 
simplicity  of  their  narrations,  indeed,  there  is  often  great  beauty,  and 
the  most  prolix  tales,  though  crowded  with  trifling  incidents,  delight 
by  the  dramatic  interest  that  dialogue  and  repartee  never  fail  to 
impart ;  but  more  than  this,  and  more  than  the  use  of  the  most 
proper  and  significant  words,  is  necessary  to  form  a  perfect  writer. 
He  must  be  patient  in  research,  discriminating  in  the  choice  of  ma- 
terials, perspicuous  in  their  arrangement. 

We  will  pass  into  Spain. 

Abu  Baker  Ebn  Alabar,  a  Spanish  Arabian,  published  a  work  in 
our  thirteenth  century,  entitled  the  Silken  Garment,  which  is  highly- 
praised  by  the  critics.  They  say  that  its  diction  is  peculiarly  pure 

1  See  Ockley's  History  of  the  Saracens,  extracted  from  Arabian  authors. 


HISTORY.  441 

and  appropriate,  its  style  elegant,  compressed,  dignified,  and  inter- 
spersed with  just  observations.  It  treats  of  the  kings  of  Spain  and 
Mauritania,  divided  into  seven  centuries,  and  of  the  great  men, 
generals,  prefects,  praetors,  and  ministers,  who  were  famous  for  their 
writings.  Of  these  he  gives  the  lives  and  characters,  the  dignities 
to  which  they  were  raised,  their  fortunes  and  achievements,  selecting 
passages  from  their  compositions  as  he  proceeds,  on  which  he  com- 
ments with  critical  nicety.  But  from  this  splendid  knot  of  worthies 
he  carefully  severs  all  those  to  whom  literature  owed  no  obligation, 
reserving  their  lives  to  be  discussed  separately,  but  in  the  same 
order  of  centuries,  at  the  close  of  his  work.  The  writer  whom  I 
follow  confines  his  extracts  chiefly  to  Spain. 

In  the  second  age  of  the  Hegira  (with  which  Alabar  begins, 
because  then  the  Spanish  monarchy  was  first  founded  by  Abdalrah- 
man),  though  this  prince  was  himself  a  poet,  and  some  of  his  suc- 
cessors, with  their  ministers,  were  famed  for  their  various  learning, 
the  progress  of  science  was  often  retarded  by  the  unsettled  state 
of  the  times.  The  third  century  (with  us  the  ninth)  opened  with 
better  omens.  Abdalrahman,  the  second  of  the  name,  was  on  the 
throne  of  Corduba,  a  prince  who  united  military  science  with  the 
love  of  letters,  and  whose  graceful  manners  commanded  the  affec- 
tions of  his  subjects.  He  was  conspicuous  for  his  firmness  and  his 
love  of  truth.  He  never  violated  his  promises,  and  he  considered 
every  breach  of  truth  as  a  crime.  His  wars  were  a  series  of  victo- 
ries. The  generals  whom  he  employed  were  signalised  by  prowess  ; 
his  ministers  by  wisdom  ;  while  favours  and  attention  attached  men 
of  science  to  his  person.  He  paved  Corduba  with  stones,  and 
adorned  it  with  many  palaces ;  whilst  he  conducted  water  through 
leaden  pipes  into  the  city  from  the  neighbouring  hills.  And  what, 
in  a  literary  history,  is  worthy  of  peculiar  notice,  he  has  himself  re- 
corded, in  elegant  verse,  these  works,  whether  of  peace  or  war.  His 
three  successors,  the  last  of  whom  saw  the  century  close,  Almonderi 
excepted,  trod  in  the  steps  of  Abdalrahman.  They  were  renowned 
for  success  in  arms,  for  equal  qualities  of  mind,  and  for  an  equal  love 
of  letters,  which  they  also  manifested  by  their  literary  compositions. 
And  their  courts  and  councils  no  less  displayed  a  splendid  succession 
of  great  men. 

A  third  and  the  greatest  of  the  Abdalrahmans  was  still  to  grace 
the  Spanish  throne.  His  reign  began  with  the  fourth  century  of  the 
Hegira  (the  tenth  of  Christ),  and  was  the  most  prosperous  and  of 
the  longest  duration  which  any  Arabian  prince  had  yet  enjoyed. 
The  factions,  feuds,  and  civil  wars  with  which  the  country  had  often 
been  harassed  were  everywhere  suppressed  by  his  prudence  and 
courage.  Justice  was  impartially  administered  ;  the  land  was  en- 
riched by  the  blessings  of  peace  ;  science  and  all  its  attendant  pur- 
suits, nourished  by  favours,  and  fostered  by  the  example  of  the 
prince,  were  prosecuted  with  general  enthusiasm.  Three  miles 
from  Corduba,  Abdalrahman  constructed  the  city,  palace,  and  gar- 


442  OF    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

<Iens  of  Zehra  in  honour  of  his  favourite  sultana.  To  this  place  his 
liberal  taste  invited  the  most  skilful  artists  of  the  age ;  and  the  build- 
ings were  adorned  by  twelve  hundred  columns  of  Spanish  and 
African,  of  Greek  and  Italian  marble.  The  hall  of  audience  was 
encrusted  with  gold  and  pearls,  and  a  great  basin  in  the  centre  was 
surrounded  with  curious  and  costly  figures  of  birds  and  quadrupeds. 
The  harem  of  the  prince,  that  is,  his  wives,  concubines,  and  black 
eunuchs,  amounted  to  six  thousand  three  hundred  persons  ;  and  he 
was  attended  to  the  field  by  a  guard  of  twelve  thousand  horse,  whose 
belts  and  scimitars  were  studded  with  gold.  Such  was  the  magnifi- 
cence of  this  Arabian  monarch  ;  but  when  a  fatal  malady  had  laid 
him  on  his  couch,  he  thus  addressed  his  attendants,  and  we  may 
fancy  that  we  once  more  hear  the  son  of  David  speak  :  "  I  have  now 
reigned,"  said  Abdalrahman,  "  above  fifty  years  in  victory  and  peace, 
beloved  by  my  subjects,  dreaded  by  my  enemies,  and  respected  by 
my  allies,  lliches  and  honours,  power  and  pleasure,  have  waited  on 
my  call,  nor  does  any  earthly  blessing  appear  to  have  been  wanting 
to  my  felicity.  In  this  situation,  I  have  diligently  numbered  the 
days  of  pure  and  genuine  happiness  which  have  fallen  to  my  lot : 
They  amount  to  Fourteen : — O  man !  place  not  thy  confidence  in 
this  present  world." 

He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Alhakem,  who,  with  the  sceptre, 
inherited  the  prosperity,  the  endowments,  and  the  learning  of  his 
father.  Every  polite  art,  it  is  related,  was  familiar  to  him ;  and  to 
these  accomplishments  he  joined  a  profound  knowledge  of  jurispru- 
dence. He  wrote  notes  on  whatever  he  read,  and  the  margins  of  the 
books  which  he  had  perused  were  filled  with  his  remarks.  Still 
further  anxious  to  diffuse  the  love  of  letters  among  his  subjects,  he 
allured  many  learned  men  from  the  East  by  the  offer  of  great 
rewards  ;  and  his  collection  of  books,  which  had  been  amassed  at  a 
great  expense,  exceeded  all  belief.  Not  less  than  six  hundred  thou- 
sand volumes  were  formed  into  a  library,  forty-four  of  which  were 
employed  in  the  mere  catalogue.  The  academy  of  Corduba  was 
founded  under  the  auspices  of  Alhakem.  Many  colleges  were 
erected  and  libraries  were  opened  in  other  cities,  while  more  than 
three  hundred  writers  exercised  their  talents  on  various  subjects  of 
erudition. 

This  was  the  golden  age  of  Arabian  literature  in  Spain  ;  and  let  it 
be  remarked,  that  this  age  coincided  with  the  most  dark  and  slothful 
period  of  our  European  annals.  The  royal  seat  of  Corduba,  about 
this  time,  contained  six  hundred  moschs,  nine  hundred  baths,  and 
two  hundred  thousand  houses.  The  prince  gave  laws  to  eighty  cities 
of  the  first,  to  three  hundred  of  the  second  and  third  order  ;  and  the 
fertile  banks  of  the  Guadalquivir  were  adorned  with  twelve  thousand 
villages  and  hamlets.  There  may  be  some  oriental  exaggeration  in 
these  accounts,  but  it  is  agreed,  that  the  era  which  they  describe  was 
one  of  riches,  of  magnificence,  and  of  intellectual  cultivation.  "  It 


MOHAMED    BEN    ABDALLA.  443 

was  the  age,"  observes  a  judicious  traveller, »  "  of  Arabian  gallantry 
and  grandeur,  which  rendered  the  Moors  of  Spain  superior  to  all 
their  contemporaries  in  arts  and  arms,  and  made  Corduba  one  of  the 
most  splendid  cities  of  the  world.  Corduba  was  the  centre  of  polite- 
ness, taste,  and  genius  ;  tilts  and  tournaments,  with  other  costly 
shows,  were  long  the  darling  pastimes  of  a  wealthy  people.  And 
this  was  the  only  kingdom  in  the  West  where  geometry,  astronomy, 
and  physic,  were  regularly  studied  and  practised."  He  might  have 
added  every  branch  of  polite  literature  to  the  list.  Alhakem  reigned 
fifteen  years  and  five  months. 

From  this  time  factions  again  prevailed,  though  learned  princes 
and  learned  men  on  all  sides  present  themselves  to  our  observation. 
Early  in  the  following  century  the  dynasty  of  the  Ommiades  was 
extinguished.  They  were  succeeded  by  the  Almoravides ;  but  the 
revolution  changed  the  face  of  the  Arabian  monarchy.  The  gover- 
nors of  the  provinces,  the  ministers  of  state,  the  chief  officers  in  the 
army,  and  the  heads  of  the  leading  families  raised  themselves  to  be 
independent  princes,  so  that  there  were  soon  almost  as  many  king- 
doms as  towns.  Corduba,  Toledo,  Seville,  Jaen,  Lisbon,  Tortosa, 
Valentia,  Murcia,  Almeria,  Granada,  and  the  Balearic  islands  had 
their  respective  sovereigns.  The  Christian  princes,  who  had  retained 
possession  of  the  northern  provinces,  from  which  they  waged  an  un- 
ceasing war,  availed  themselves  of  these  divisions  to  regain  their  lost 
territories  ;  and  they  finally  succeeded. 

Mohamed  Ben  Abdalla,  as  late  as  the  middle  of  our  fourteenth 
century,  in  a  work  entitled  Universal  Library  (under  which  name 
many  similar  works  were  published),  restricting  his  inquiries  to 
Spain,  gave  an  account  of  the  lives  and  writings  of  such  of  the 
Moorish  Spaniards  as  had  attained  any  scientific  celebrity  from  the 
first  establishment  of  the  monarchy  to  his  own  time.  Of  this  valu- 
able work,  which  originally  consisted  of  eleven  parts,  five  only 
remain,  and  these  are  not  perfect.  But  its  imperfection  enhances 
our  admiration  :  for  if  we  were  attentively  to  consider  the  list  of  the 
authors  who  are  here  recorded,  their  works  in  every  department  of 
polite  literature,  and  the  perturbed  state  of  the  various  governments, 
and  compare  it  with  an  equal  period  of  the  most  enlightened  and 
tranquil  of  modern  times,  with  their  authors  and  their  works,  I 
would  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  decision  must  be  in  favour  of 
^Moorish  Spain. 

Three  other  works  on  the  same  subject,  and  under  the  same  title, 
but  of  a  prior  date,  contribute  still  more  to  augment  the  number  of 
learned  Spaniards  and  their  mass  of  science ;  and  the  last  subjoins 
a  list  of  females  celebrated  in  the  annals  of  the  same  domestic  litera- 
ture. J  will  mention  one,  Aisc-hah,  of  Corduba,  who  lived  in  our 
tenth  century,  a  poet  whose  talents  and  learning  caused  the  bosoms 
of  many  princes  to  thrill  with  admiration  and  with  love.  Her  com- 

1  Swinburne's  Travels, 


444  OF    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

positions,  in  prose  and  in  verse,  which  were  recited  in  the  academy 
of  the  royal  city,  were  received  with  reiterated  applause.  She  led  a 
single  life,  and  left  behind  her,  together  with  an  extensive  and  well- 
selected  library,  many  lasting  monuments  of  her  taste  and  learning. 

But  we  must  not  so  soon  quit  Mohamed  Ben  Abdalla.  Among 
the  various  works  which  he  published,  one  was  entitled  a  Specimen 
of  the  Full  Moon,  that  is,  the  History  of  the  Kingdom  of  Granada, 
and  I  do  not  think  that  the  reader  will  be  displeased  with  some 
account  of  the  contents.  I  must,  however,  first  observe,  what  I  ought 
perhaps  to  have  noticed  before,  that  the  Arabians  were  singularly 
whimsical  in  the  titles  of  their  books,  which,  as  the  Specimen  of  the 
Fidl  Moon  announces,  had  not  the  most  distant  reference  to  the 
subject  of  the  volume.  Thus,  not  to  go  further  than  Abdalla  him- 
self, the  Chronology  of  the  Caliphs  and  Kings  of  Spain  and  Africa, 
he  entitles  The  Silken  Vest  embroidered  with  the  Needle ;  The  Lives 
of  eminent  Men  is  Odoriferous  Plants  :  a  treatise  on  Constancy  of 
mind  is  Proved  Butter:  and  Refined  Gold  is  meant  to  denote  a 
choice  of  elegant  phrases.  In  these  conceits  there  was,  certainly,  (to 
us)  a  want  of  taste  ;  but  fashion  or  established  usage  must  ever  con- 
trol the  free  exercise  of  judgment. 

Granada  and  its  territory  was  the  last  principality  which  remained 
in  the  hands  of  the  Mahometans,  under  whose  administration  it 
enjoyed  the  greatest  affluence  and  prosperity.  Its  agriculture  had 
been  brought  to  perfection ;  its  revenues  and  circulation  were 
immense  ;  its  public  works  magnificent ;  and  its  population  incre- 
dible. Of  the  taste  and  munificence  of  its  first  rulers,  the  ruins  of  the 
palace  of  Alhambra,  built  in  the  midst  of  gardens  of  aromatic  trees, 
with  noble  views  over  beautiful  hills  and  fertile  plains,  are,  to  the 
present  day,  a  splendid  monument.1  The  Moors  are  said  to  offer  up 
prayers  every  Friday  for  the  recovery  of  this  favourite  city. 

As  I  wish  to  convey  some  idea  of  the  manner  in  which  Abdalla 
wrote,  I  shall  present  a  concise  view  of  his  History,  and,  as  nearly 
as  a  translation  at  second  hand  will  admit,  in  the  words  of  the  author. 

"  Since  the  annals  of  kings,"  says  he,  in  his  preface,  "  hold  out  an 
example  to  rulers,  and  give  a  lesson  to  others,  that  when  they  con- 
template these  monuments,  they  may  learn  from  the  inconstancy  of 
fortune  the  instability  of  human  concerns,  and  the  terror  of  many 
misfortunes,  not  easily  to  forget  God  ;  I  have,  therefore,  undertaken 
to  write  this  History,  and  to  bring  past  events  to  light,  from  the 
obscurity  of  those  annals  in  which  they  lay  as  it  were  entombed.  I 
shall  relate  in  their  proper  order  what  were  the  boundaries  of  this 
kingdom,  the  seat  of  empire,  and  the  noble  transactions  of  its 
princes.  I  will  next  give  an  account  of  the  generals  who  were 
famous  by  their  birth  and  exploits,  of  the  governors  and  ministers 
who  then  flourished,  of  the  contemporary  princes  who  then  reigned, 
and  of  such  other  things  as  may  seem  worthy  to  be  mentioned.  If 

1  For  a  description  of  these  ruins,  see  the  elegant  plates  given  by  Swin- 
Inirne,  (Travels  tlirough  Spain,  171 — 188.) 


MOHAMED  BEN  ABDALLA.  445 

the  reader  find  anything  good  or  deserving  of  praise,  I  have  already 
gained  my  purpose  and  the  reward  of  my  labours,  and  that  toward 
the  praise  and  glory  of  God,  under  whose  benevolent  direction  I  now 
proceed  to  arrange  my  materials  in  the  following  order.  The  first 
part  treats  of  the  city  of  Granada,  the  seat  of  the  empire,  of  which  a 
short  description  is  given  ;  the  second,  of  its  provinces  and  the  places 
subject  to  it ;  the  third,  of  the  kings  and  princes  who  in  it  held  com- 
mand ;  the  fourth,  of  the  manners  and  qualities  of  its  citizens ;  the 
fifth  of  the  series  and  achievements  of  its  kings. 

1.  "  Granada,  by  foreigners  called  Garanata,  that  is,  the  colony 
of  strangers,  by  us  the  Damascus  of  Spain,  formerly  belonged  to 
the  celebrated  city  of  Albira,  from  which  it  was  not  remote.  In  the 
fourth  age  of  the  Hegira  (the  eleventh  century)  having  become  the 
royal  seat,  it  began  to  be  very  famous.  By  the  mild  temperature  of 
the  air  and  the  qualities  of  the  soil,  it  certainly  is  not  unlike  to 
Damascus.  From  Corduba,  the  first  and  ancient  residence  of  our 
kings,  which  may  heaven  restore  to  us !  it  is  ninety  miles  distant 
between  the  east  and  south. 

"  Granada  is  the  capital  of  the  most  maritime  towns,  the  proud 
head  of  the  kingdom,  the  noble  emporium  of  merchants,  the  indul- 
gent parent  of  sailors,  the  receptacle  of  strangers  from  all  the  quarters 
of  the  earth,  the  perpetual  garden  of  fruits  ever  succeeding  each 
other,  the  grateful  tarrying-place  for  men,  the  public  treasury,  the 
city  most  renowned  for  its  fields  and  bulwarks,  the  boundless  sea  of 
grain  and  of  most  excellent  legumes,  and  the  fertile  mine  of  silk  and 
sugar.  Not  far  removed  rises  a  mountain,  called  Sierra,  noted  for 
the  whiteness  of  its  snows  and  the  purity  of  its  waters ;  to  this  add 
the  salubrity  of  the  air,  the  variety  of  plants,  and  of  exquisite 
aromatics.  Amongst  its  most  rare  gifts,  this  merits  the  first  place — 
that  the  fields  are  not  void  of  corn  nor  the  meadows  without  verdure 
in  any  part  of  the  year.  The  territory  abounds  in  gold,  silver,  iron, 
lead,  marcasites,  and  sapphire  stones.  Y'arious  herbs,  the  gentian 
and  the  spikenard,  grow  on  its  mountains  and  in  its  marshes.  There 
likewise  is  found  the  berry  which  gives  the  scarlet  die  to  silk,  and  of 
this  commodity  an  abundance  is  collected  for  commercial  traffic  and 
domestic  use.  Even  our  silken  stuff's  are  esteemed  far  superior  to 
those  of  Assyria,  in  softness,  elegance,  and  lustre. 

••  As  to  the  country,  it  is  most  delightful,  emulating  the  fields 
of  Damascus,  and  well  adapted  by  day  or  night  to  the  exercise  of 
riding  or  walking.  It  naturally  stretches  into  a  plain  which  is 
watered  by  brooks  and  rivers.  Villages  and  gardens  everywhere 
I .n  sent  themselves,  adorned  with  beautiful  buildings,  trees,  and 
plants ;  while  the  hills  and  the  mountains,  which  fill  the  space  of 
forty  miles,  encompass  the  plain  in  the  form  almost  of  a  semicircle. 
There,  or  nearly  there,  stands  the  proud  Granad;i,  \\  liich  partly  covers 
the  ascending  steeps,  with  its  lofty  suburbs  resting  on  five  hills,  and 
in  part  spreads  into  the  wide  plain,  to  a  place  called  Cor-Ali/n/tL 
Words  can  besides  but  ill  express  how  happy,  how  enchanting  it 
i>  rendered  by  the  softness  of  the  air,  the  mildness  of  the  climate,  the 


446  OF    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

raised  arches  of  its  bridges,  its  convenient  porticos,  and  its  splendid 
temples.  The  river  Darro  flowing  from  the  east  then  divides  it, 
and  joining  the  Singilis  flows  through  the  plain,  till,  nourished  by 
many  copious  streams,  it  swells  like  the  Nile,  and  in  a  broad  cur- 
rent advances  to  Hispalis  (Seville). 

"  With  a  still  more  delightful  prospect  on  the  opposite  side  rises, 
as  it  were,  another  city,  which  is  called  Alhambra,  where  the  royal 
residence  appears.  Lofty  towers,  embattled  citadels,  gorgeous 
palaces,  and  other  resplendent  edifices,  attract  the  sight  and  fill  the 
mind  of  the  beholders  with  admiration.  A  vast  mass  of  waters, 
whose  murmuring  noise  as  they  fall  from  many  fountains  is  heard 
at  a  distance,  is  here  seen  irrigating  the  fields  and  meadows. 
Spacious  gardens  in  like  manner  surround  the  outer  walls  of  Gra- 
nada, with  trees  in  the  form  of  hedges,  yet  so  that  the  elegant 
edifices  are  beheld  like  stars  to  sparkle  through  the  leaves.  No  spot 
is  without  its  orchards,  its  vineyards  and  its  gardens,  and  the  wealth 
only  of  the  most  opulent  princes  can  cope  with  the  valuable  fruits 
and  vegetables  which  are  scattered  in  profusion  over  the  widely- 
extended  plain.  The  annual  revenue  which  is  hence  derived  is  con- 
siderable, part  of  which  flows  into  the  royal  coffers. 

"  The  king  has  here  his  own  grounds,  which  are  rendered  wonder- 
fully pleasant  by  rows  of  trees  and  by  a  variety  of  shrubs.  You 
behold  towers  rising  with  a  comely  aspect,  a  plain  amply  expanded, 
perennial  waters  flowing  for  the  use  of  mills  and  the  convenience  of 
bathing.  The  revenue  which  is  hence  derived  serves  to  maintain 
the  fortifications  of  the  city.  A  circumference  of  twenty  miles 
encloses  these  grounds,  which  are  cultivated  and  embellished  by 
many  able  labourers  and  well-chosen  animals.  Castles,  offices,  and 
sacred  structures  everywhere  meet  the  eye ;  and  to  these  decorations 
of  the  fields  must  be  joined  what,  in  the  mind  of  the  husbandman, 
merits  the  first  place,  the  richness  and  fertility  of  the  soil.  Conti- 
guous to  these  grounds  lie  many  towns  noted  for  their  population 
and  their  farms,  of  which  some  are  devoted  to  tillage  and  others  to 
pasture.  Then  succeed  villages  and  hamlets,  all  teeming  with 
people.  These  different  places,  which  are  fifty  in  number,  contain 
more  than  three  hundred  colleges  and  temples,  and  a  hundred  and 
thirty  water-mills  are  seen  at  work  without  the  walls." 

2d.  The  kingdom  of  Granada,  he  says,  contained  thirty-three 
regions;  and  he  numbers  the  principal  cities,  giving  a  brief  descrip- 
tion of  each,  but  the  Arabian  names  are  not  easily  deciphered.  He 
himself,  aware  of  the  confusion  which  time  and  other  accidents  had 
occasioned,  concludes  this  part  of  his  subject  with  the  following 
reflections  :  "  Of  the  regions  which  I  have  mentioned,  some,  in  the 
present  age,  retain  the  same  names  ;  others  have  changed  them  ; 
others,  in  the  lapse  of  time,  as  is  the  case  in  human  concerns,  have 
wholly  slipped  from  the  memories  of  men  ;  for  God  alone  is  in  his 
own  nature  immutable." 

3rd.  In  this  part,  the  author  barely  enumerates  the  succession  of 


MOHAMED  BEN  ABDALLA.  447 

kings  who,  in  their  various  dynasties,  from  the  first  foundation  of 
the  state  in  the  fourth  century  of  the  Hegira,  held  the  sceptre,  down 
to  his  own  time,  when  the  family  of  Beni  Nasser  continued  to 
occupy  the  throne.  This,  as  I  have  observed,  was  in  our  fourteenth 
century. 

4th.  "  The  people  of  Granada  are  orthodox  in  their  religious 
belief,  and  infected  by  no  heresy.  They  are  dutiful  to  their  king, 
patient  of  labour,  and  highly  generous,  handsome  in  their  shape,  the 
nose  moderate,  the  countenance  fair,  the  hair  generally  black,  the 
stature  as  it  ought  to  be.  Their  language,  which -is  Arabic,  is  noted 
for  its  elegance,  highly  embellished,  but  rather  diffuse.  They  are 
arrogant  and  opinionated  in  discussion  and  in  argument.  The  greater 
part  are  foreigners  by  descent,  chiefly  from  Barbary.  Their  dress 
somewhat  approaches  to  the  Persian,  consisting  of  rich  streaked 
silks,  and  the  finest  woollen  or  linen  cloths,  woven  from  the  most 
delicate  threads.  In  winter  they  wear  an  African,  or  rather  a 
Tunisian  cloak ;  in  summer,  a  tunic  of  white  linen ;  so  that,  when 
seen  in  the  temple,  they  appear  like  the  vernal  flowers  which  gaily 
deck  the  meads. 

"  The  daily  food  of  the  inhabitants  is  generally  wheaten  bread, 
and  that  of  the  best  kind.  The  poor  and  the  labourers  have  some- 
times in  winter  recourse  to  that  of  excellent  barley.  Every  sort  of 
fruit  is  eaten,  particularly  graj.es,  of  which  the  quantity  is  pro- 
digious ;  besides  which  there  is  a  vast  abundance  of  dried  fruits, 
which  is  never  exhausted ;  even  ripe  grapes  are  preserved  without 
decay,  from  season  to  season. 

"  The  citizens  enjoy  their  times  of  leisure,  some  retiring  into  the 
country  at  the  season  of  the  vintage,  while  others  also  withdraw  to 
their  farms,  but  with  their  arms  and  their  servants,  whence  they 
make  excursions,  and  harass  the  land.s  of  their  enemies. 

"  The  ornamental  dress  which  is  worn  by  the  ladies  of  high  birth  as 
well  as  by  those  whom  favour  or  station  have  raised  to  eminence, 
consi-  rdle,  crural  bands,  a  vail  exquisitely  wrought  with 

the  purest  gold  and  silver,  with  various  decorations  for  the  feet. 
They  display  a  great  variety  of  precious  stones  and  gems.  They 
are  comely  in  their  persons,  and  of  a  middle  stature ;  it  is  rare  to 
see  one  that  is  tall.  As  they  are  delicate,  they  delight  in  long  hair, 
of  which  they  assiduously  nourish  the  growth.  Their  teeth  are 
beautifully  white,  and  their  breath  is  fragrant  with  odours.  They 
;uv  active  in  walking.  Their  perceptions  are  quick,  and  their  dis- 
course is  enlivened  by  grace  and  pleasantry.  But  the  ostentation  of 
our  modern  women,  and  the  love  of  dress  and  ornaments,  have  now 
proceeded  to  such  a  pitch,  that  their  extravagance  may  be  deemed 
almost  insanity," 

5th.  In  the  last  section  of  this  brief  and  admirable  narration,  Ben 
Abdalla  details  the  history  of  the  reigning  family,  Beni  Nas.-<  r. 
"  The  first  prince  of  the  dynasty  was  Mohamed,  surnamed  Alpraleb 
Billa,  who  was  born  in  the  city  of  Arjona,  belonging  to  the  happjr 


448  OF    THE    ARABIAN    OR    SARACENIC    LEARNING. 

and  fertile  country  of  Corduba,  where  he  received  his  education 
under  celebrated  masters.  But  in  early  youth,  as  soon  as  he  felt  the 
blood  move  quickly  in  his  veins,  he  was  seized  with  a  lust  of 
power,  and  he  began  to  meditate  great  designs.  In  the  conduct  of 
war,  and  in  the  duties  of -peace,  he  evinced  admirable  talents. 
To  military  experience  he  added  ardent  courage,  and  bodily 
strength.  He  was  averse  from  idleness,  and  careless  of  his  personal 
ease,  negligent  of  his  attire,  and  highly  frugal  in  every  respect ; 
dexterous  in  the  arts  of  war,  and  in  making  use  of  favourable 
opportunities.  As-a  general  he  was  prompt  in  action,  and  regardless 
of  danger.  The  dignity  of  his  countenance  commanded  respect  no 
less  than  that  of  his  station.  In  the  choice  of  his  wives  he  consulted 
the  majesty  of  the  throne  ;  he  was  attentive  to  the  conveniences  of 
his  servants,  and  never  showed  himself  oppressive  in  providing  for 
the  exigencies  of  government.  The  battles  which  he  fought  in 
person,  have  been  fully  detailed  by  the  historians.  He  was  wrapped 
in  an  ordinary  cloak  ;  he  walked  about  in  greaves,  and  in  the  trans- 
action of  his  own  concerns  was  never  sparing  of  toil. 

"  On  a  Friday  of  the  year  629  (1229)  he  made  a  successful  assault 
upon  the  city  of  Jaen,  and  soon  afterwards  took  Granada.  When 
he  ascended  the  throne,  it  is  related  that  he  supplied  with  the  neces- 
saries of  life  such  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  royal  city  as  were  indi- 
g'ent,  or  old,  or  incapable  of  labour.  For  a  short  time  he  was 
master  of  Seville  and  of  Corduba,  as  I  have  elsewhere  more  fully 
related.  Possessed  of  Granady.  he  undertook  to  build  the  citadel, 
called  Alhambra,  to  accompLsh  which  he  found  himself  necessitated 
to  impose  some  burthens  upon  the  people.  He  was  himself 
present,  and  overlooked  the  work,  after  the  completion  of  which, 
and  the  conveyance  of  copious  streams  of  water  to  the  place,  he 
made  it  the  royal  residence.  He  next  entered  into  an  alliance  with  the 
neighbouring  princes,  after  which  wealth  flowed  in  so  fast  that  the 
treasury  was  filled  with  gold,  whilst  the  storehouses  adjoining  to  the 
citadel  abounded  in  corn  and  every  kind  of  pulse.  He  moreover 
strengthened  the  mountain  with  fortresses  and  garrisons,  and  en- 
compassed it  with  a  wall.  He  now  happily  enjoyed  what  he  had 
wisely  planned  and  executed.  Twice  in  the  week  he  admitted 
those* to  his  presence  who  had  any  complaints  to  make,  or  petitions 
to  offer  ;  and  he  was  always  easy  of  access  to  men  of  letters  and  to 
ambassadors.  In  affairs  of  moment  he  took  the  advice  of  frequent 
meetings  of  the  leading  men  of  the  people,  of  the  judges,  and  of 
others  recommended  by  their  station,  and  afterwards,  having  laid 
the  same  points  before  his  ministers  in  secret  council,  he  allowed 
each  to  proceed  in  his  department,  and  committed  the  superintend- 
ence to  some  of  his  generals." 

The  author  then  gives  the  names  and  characters  of  the  chief 
ministers,  secretaries,  and  judges  who  were  employed  under  the 
government  of  Mohamed ;  and  subjoins  a  short  account  of  the 
princes  who  at  the  same  time  reigned  in  Africa,  as  likewise  of  the 


MOHAMED  III.  449 

contemporary  Christian  kings  in  Spain.  Mohamed  died  in  the  year 
671  of  the  Ilegira,  after  a  reign  of  more  than  forty  years.  His  body 
was  laid  in  a  silver  coffin,  and  an  epitaph,  in  the  usual  style  of  Asiatic 
exuberance,  was  inscribed  upon  his  tomb.  He  was  succeeded  by  his 
son  Mohamed,  the  second  of  the  name. 

The  character  of  this  prince  is  delineated  with  the  same  force,  and 
in  colours  as  flattering  as  those  with  which  that  of  the  father  is 
described.  "  In  magnificence,"  says  Abdalla,  "  in  military  skill,  in 
indefatigable  industry,  in  prudence,  firmness,  and  long  experience, 
he  fairly  surpassed  all  other  kings.  He  rewarded  the  ministers  of 
his  court  with  honours,  his  generals  with  ample  favours ;  and, 
uniting  together  many  different  people,  he  enriched  the  country  by 
means  of  commerce.  Let  me  add  to  this,  the  singular  elegance  of 
his  person  and  manners,  his  policy,  his  munificence,  and  his  patience. 
He  was  hardly  raised  to  the  throne  when  he  yielded  to  the  wishes  of 
his  nobles  ;  seemed  dexterously,  and  with  consummate  art  to  humour 
the  designs  of  his  enemies,  but  he  heaped  favours  on  his  friends. 
With  these,  and  other  qualifications,  he  displayed  exquisite  skill  in 
beautiful  penmanship ;  and  his  poetical  compositions  were  replete 
with  point  and  fancy.  Studious  of  literary  lore,  he  took  singular 
delight  in  the  conversation  of  physicians,  astronomers,  philosophers, 
orators,  and  poets.  Great  differences  having  arisen  in  the  beginning 
of  his  reign,  which,  to  the  imminent  danger  of  the  whole  country, 
was  fomented  by  an  infamous  band  of  partisans,  Mohamed,  at  once 
forbearing  and  firm,  never  evinced  any  vacillation  ;  he  overcame  the 
most  refractory  by  endurance,  and  conciliated  his  enemies.  He 
waged  many  wars  with  success,  and  died  after  a  long  reign,  with 
the  renown  of  a  celebrated  name  both  far  and  near." 

The  same  order,  which  I  have  already  described,  is  next  pursued, 
and  some  events  of  the  reign  are  detailed,  on  which  I  need  not  dwell. 
But  I  will  remark,  that  the  characters  of  not  a  few  of  the  persons 
about  the  court,  military,  literary,  and  civil,  were  highly  meritorious. 
Mohamed  died  in  701  (1301). 

Mnhamed  III.  his  son  and  successor,  trod  in  his  father's  steps,  in 
whose  school  he  had  learned  wisdom,  and  the  art  of  government. 
"  Occupied  with  the  weight}'  cares  of  the  state,  and  the  exigencies 
of  a  perilous  crisis,  he  often  watched  to  a  late  hour,  by  light  of 
torches,  ruminating  on  the  commonwealth,  and  the  concerns  of  the 
royal  house,  while  some  persons  were  in  waiting  \vho  noted  the 
pacing  hours.  But  this  occasioned  a  disorder  in  his  eyes.  Fortune, 
however,  was  propitious,  and  his  undertakings  proved  successful :  he 
vanquished  his  enemies,  and  made  peace  with  the  kings.  He  was  a 
poet  and  an  orator  ;  so  great  a  poet,  that  he  proposed  many  subjects 
of  composition  to  others,  and  contended  with  them  in  alternate 
verses.  Men  of  learning  were  his  intimate  acquaintance,  and  enjoyed 
his  high  regard.  As  the  consummation  of  his  general  character,  let 
me  not  omit  his  uncommon  stock  of  knowledge,  the  readiness  of  his 
wit,  his  skill  in  composition,  and  the  elegance  of  his  handwriting. 

G  G 


450  OF  THE  ARABIAN  Oil  SARACENIC  LEARNING. 

Truly  he  would  have  been  a  great  king,  but  by  nature  he  was 
cruel. 

"  Among  the  magnificent  monuments  which  he  left  to  posterity  is 
the  great  temple,  of  an  exquisite  form,  which  he  erected  in  the 
royal  city  (called  Alhambra),  wrought  in  tesselated  or  mosaic  work, 
and  raised  on  columns  elaborately  finished,  the  capitals  and  bases  of 
which  are  silver.  This  temple  he  piously  endowed  with  the  rents 
arising  from  a  bath  which  he  built  on  the  opposite  side,  out  of  the 
tribute  which  was  paid  by  the  Jews  and  Christians ;  and  he  devised 
to  it  lands  with  their  produce.  The  whole  was  a  work  worthy  of  so 
incomparable  a  prince." 

This  prince,  however,  was  dethroned  by  his  brother,  Aba  Al- 
geiusch,  of  whom  the  historian  speaks  in  equal  terms  of  praise, 
extolling  the  beauty  of  his  person,  the  virtues  of  his  heart,  and  the 
accomplishments  of  his  mind.  Addicted  to  astronomical  and  mathe- 
matical pursuits,  he  excelled  not  only  in  the  theory  of  these  studies, 
but  in  the  construction  of  instruments,  and  the  arrangements  of 
scientific  tables.  But  his  reign  was  not  prosperous,  and  he  was  him- 
self expelled  from  the  throne  by  the  machinations  of  his  prime 
minister.  His  cousin,  Abu  Said,  the  prince  of  Malaca,  succeeded 
him  about  the  year  of  the  Hegira  7T2. 

Abu  Said,  better  known  by  the  name  of  Abulualid,  besides  many 
exquisite  endowments,  natural  and  acquired,  was  remarkable  for  his 
chastity,  (a  virtue  of  which  we  seldom  read  among  the  followers  of 
Mahomet)  :  "  and  with  such  ardour  did  he  pursue  the  example  of 
the  greatest  princes,  that  he  seemed  to  live  only  for  glory.  He  ex- 
celled in  the  exercises  of  the  chase,  in  the  use  of  arms,  and  in  the 
management  of  the  horse.  Aided  by  his  friends,  and  favoured  by 
many  fortunate  incidents,  he  commenced  a  glorious  reign,  governing 
his  kingdom  with  justice,  and  making  an  irresistible  opposition  to 
the  attacks  and  fury  of  his  own  enemies  and  of  those  of  God.  Such 
was  his  conduct,  that  he  was  esteemed  the  jewel,  as  it  were,  of  his 
family,  and  the  ornament  of  the  age."  When,  on  some  occasion, 
the  conversation  turned  on  the  principles  of  religion,  "  My  princi- 
ples," observed  Abulualid,  "  are  faith  in  one  God,  and  in  this  " — lay- 
ing his  hand  on  his  scimitar.  The  historian  dwells  on  the  many 
battles  which  he  fought,  some  of  which  he  describes  with  peculiar 
animation,  and  he  speaks  of  the  explosions  by  gunpowder  which  I 
before  mentioned :  "  A  fiery  globe,  by  the  means  of  combustible 
matter,  with  a  mighty  noise  suddenly  emitted,  strikes  with  the  force 
of  lightning,  and  shakes  the  citadel."  He  was  assassinated  by  a 
relation  whom  he  had  offended  in  the  year  of  the  Hegira  725,  and 
was  buried  in  the  gardens  of  the  Alhambra,  "  in  a  monument  of 
elaborate  workmanship." 

His  son,  another  Mphamed,  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  Granada. 
Of  this  prince,  and  of  his  two  successors,  the  historian  Abdalla  was 
the  contemporary,  and,  as  he  occupied  an  important  post  in  the 
court,  was  an  eye  witness  of  the  events  of  their  reigns.  His  delinea- 


MOHAMED  IV.  451 

tion  of  characters  is,  in  general,  flattering.  This  Mohamed  he 
represents  as  a  prince  who  was  not  inferior  in  mental  qualifications 
to  any  of  his  predecessors,  and  was  besides  gifted  with  an  uncommon 
degree  of  physical  strength,  and  highly  skilled  in  horsemanship. 
"  In  hunting,"  says  he,  "  he  took  singular  delight ;  he  was  versed 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  best  breed  of  horses ;  and  he  was  warmly 
attached  to  the  charms  of  poetry  and  the  beauties  of  eloquence.  In 
besieging  a  Spanish  city,  when  he  had  rashly  advanced  before  his 
men,  and  thrown  at  a  Christian  a  spear  richly  ornamented  with 
jewels,  with  which  the  wounded  soldier  was  endeavouring  to  escape, 
"  Let  him  go,"  exclaimed  Mohamed  to  his  followers,  who  wished  to 
save  the  weapon,  "  if  he  survive  the  blow,  the  spear  will  pay  the 
expenses  of  his  cure."  In  attempting  to  carry  war  into  Africa,  he 
was  cut  off  and  slain,  in  the  733rd  year  of  the  Hegira,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  brother. 

Joseph  was  the  brother's  name,  "  a  youth  who  might  be  deemed 
the  glory  of  princes,  celebrated  for  beauty  of  person,  for  strength, 
and  for  manners.  He  excelled  in  poetry.  Remarkable  for  a  dark 
and  flowing  beard,  in  conversation  he  was  solemn,  but  gracious,  and 
with  a  royal  deportment.  Affable  to  all,  he  received  those  who 
approached  him  with  kindness,  and  with  an  attention  proportioned 
to  their  station.  His  wit  was  keen  ;  and  his  memory,  richly  stored 
with  quotations,  added  weight  to  his  remarks.  His  mental  endow- 
ments were  heightened  by  skill  in  the  mechanic  arts.  Studious  of 
peace,  he  ruled  with  much  forbearance ;  was  often  employed  in 
raising  public  edifices  ;  and,  whilst  he  seemed  to  emulate  the  renown 
of  other  princes,  he  surpassed  them  in  wealth  and  other  valuable 
acquisitions."  Thus,  revered  by  his  subjects,  and  often  giving  aid 
to  the  canst-  of  Islamism,  Joseph  reigned  during  twenty  and  two 

fears,  when  he  fell  by  the  dagger  of  an  assassin,  while,  "  on  his 
nees  in  the  temple,  he  was  imploring  the  pardon  of  his  sins,  and 
striving  to  approach  nearer  to  God  by  prayer." 

The  character  of  his  son  Mohamed,  who  was  now  raised  to  the 
throne,  is  thus  delineated :  "  The  virtues  which  were  found  dispersed 
in  other  princes  were  combined  in  him — humanity,  probity,  com- 
posure of  mind,  and  a  candour  announced  in  the  features  of  his 
countenance.  Called  to  the  throne  in  his  youthful  years,  he  laboured 
to  supply  the  defect  of  experience  by  the  vigour  of  his  exertions. 
~U'.'  contemplated  in  him  much  gravity,  prudence,  modesty,  temper- 
ance, and  such  lenity  and  gentleness  of  character,  that  he  often 
lamented  with  tears  the  fate  of  the  unhappy,  and  by  love  and  favours 
strongly  attached  the  affections  of  his  friends.  The  inheritance 
which  he  received  was  not  disturbed  by  ambition  :  security  every- 
where prevailed.  Luxury  and  adulation  during  his  reign  were 
banished  from  the  court;  and  hence  the  people,  softened  by  his 
manners,  became  themselves  more  gentle.  The  nobles  cheerfully 
obeyed,  and  all  were  busv  in  proclaiming  his  praise.  But  fortune 
soon  turned  against  him.'  His  brother  Ismael  expelled  him  from 

OG  2 


452  OF  THE  ARABIAN  OR  SARACENIC  LEARNING. 

the  throne,  which  he  held  in  spite  of  every  effort  used  by  Mohamed, 
who  was  powerfully  aided  by  the  Moorish  prince  of  Fez,  and  the 
Christian  king  of  Castile.  He  was  finally  murdered  by  his  cousin 
Abu  Said,  who  himself  dared  to  assume  the  purple,  but  who,  detested 
for  his  crimes,  and  retreating  to  the  court  of  the  Castilian  prince, 
experienced  the  fate  due  to  treason.  Mohamed  once  more  entered 
the  royal  city  of  Granada,  where  he  continued  to  reign  in  the  year 
of  the  Hegira  765,  of  our  era  1387,  when  Ben  Abdalla  closed  his 
Specimen  of  the  Full  Moon,  that  is,  the  History  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Granada. 

"  From  this  review  of  the  work  of  Abdalla,  which  is  itself  an  epi- 
tome, it  may  be  collected,  as  far  as  we  can  rely  on  the  fidelity  of  the 
translator,  in  what  manner  Arabian  history  was  sometimes  composed. 
But  I  suspect  that  too  great  a  liberty  has  been  taken,  and  that  a 
character  which  is  not  its  own,  but  derived  from  a  better  source,  has 
been  engrafted  on  the  Moorish  stock  ;  that  where,  as  in  other  genuine 
compositions,  a  desultory  negligence  prevailed,  a  more  compressed 
precision  has  been  introduced ;  that  trifling  anecdotes  and  tiresome 
digressions  have  been  omitted,  and  that  minute  and  prolix  details,  in 
order  to  show  the  copiousness  of  language  and  variety  of  expression, 
have  been  curtailed,  or  condensed  into  a  less  tedious  series.  Still, 
notwithstanding  these  defects  which  are  charged  on  the  Arabian 
writers,  it  must  be  owned,  that  in  their  artless  and  dramatic  narra- 
tions, and  especially  in  the  delineations  of  character,  there  is  often 
something  which  powerfully  arrests  and  interests  attention.1 

From  the  time  at  which  the  history  of  Abdalla  closes,  the  end  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  when  every  other  portion  of  the  Moorish 
empire  had  been  gradually  recovered,  the  kingdom  of  Granada  singly 
maintained  its  independence  a  hundred  years.  It  was  still  extensive, 
comprising  a  compass  of  seven  hundred  miles,  and  still  powerful  from 
an  immense  population  diffused  over  its  surface,  and  collected  within 
the  walls  of  fourteen  cities  and  ninety-seven  towns.  But  internal 
discord,  and  the  ambitious  views  of  the  chiefs,  often  broke  the 
union  which  should  now  more  than  ever  have  strengthened  the 
Moorish  ranks.  They  neglected  to  preserve  a  friendly  connexion 
with  their  countrymen  in  Africa,  from  whom  they  might  have  de- 
rived aid ;  and  the  arts  which  they  cultivated,  and  the  luxury  con- 
sequent on  the  prosperity  which  has  been  described,  had  greatly 
relaxed  the  force  of  their  military  institutions  and  abated  their  mar- 
tial enterprise.  On  the  other  side,  the  Christian  states,  no  longer 
subdivided  into  small  principalities,  the  head  of  each  of  which  as- 
sumed the  ensigns  of  royalty,  but  formed  into  two  powerful  king- 
doms under  the  crowns  of  Castile  and  Aragon,  pressed  forward  with 
united  strength,  actuated  by  zeal  for  religion,  by  the  desire  of  ven- 

1  See  Ockley's  History  of  the  Saracens,  passim,  wherein -will  be  found 
an  interesting  account  of  Mahomed  and  the  first  Caliphs,  drawn,  in  tlieir  own 
simple  style,  from  the  original  authors. 


THE  FALL  OF  GRANADA.  453 

geance,  and  by  the  hope  of  rescuing  their  country  from  the  reproach 
of  seven  hundred  years  of  subjugation.  The  Moors,  who  were  still 
a  gallant  people,  and  possessed  of  great  resources,  made  head  against 
their  enemies,  though  town  after  town  was  taken,  and  sometimes 
defeated  them  even  in  pitched  battles.  But  when  the  two  crowns 
just  mentioned  were,  by  a  fortunate  marriage,  united  in  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella,  the  last  war  with  Granada  began,  which  in  1492  ter- 
minated in  the  capture  of  the  city,  and  the  utter  overthrow  of  the 
Moorish  power.1 

Centuries  before  this  event,  the  caliphs  of  Bagdad,  whose  splendour 
and  love  of  letters  we  admired,  had  lost  their  greatness.  I  mentioned 
the  principal  causes  which  led  to  this  catastrophe,  and  I  observed 
that  early  in  the  tenth  century  Radhi,  the  twentieth  caliph  of  the 
Abbassides,  was  the  last  who  could  be  said  to  enjoy  the  real  dignity  of 
the  station.  After  him  their  temporal  authority  was  more  and  more 
abridged,  till,  being  obliged  to  seek  an  asylum  in  Egypt,  the  last 
eighteen  of  the  dynasty,  who  were  still  acknowledged  to  possess  some 
spiritual  jurisdiction,  were  reduced  to  a  state  of  dependence,  and 
sometimes  even  of  mendicity.  "  These  lords  of  the  Eastern  world," 
says  the  historian  Abulfeda,8  "were  brought  down  to  the  most  abject 
misery,  and  exposed  to  the  insults  of  a  servile  condition."  Their 
territories  most  to  the  East  had  been  dismembered  and  formed  into 
independent  states  in  the  Arabian  Irak,  in  Aderbigan  or  Media,  in 
Fars  or  Persia,  and  in  Laristan  or  the  country  on  the  Persian  gulf, 
whilst  a  like  fate  menaced  and  soon  oppressed  the  remaining  terri- 
tories. The  inundation  of  northern  barbarians  which  overturned 
the  empire  of  the  West  had  also  greatly  contributed  to  accelerate 
the  fall  of  the  caliphate.  The  Turks  from  the  neighbourhood  of 
mount  Taurus  had  been  first  called  in  as  auxiliaries ;  but  as  they 
extended  their  conquests,  these  lieutenants,  as  they  humbly  styled 
themselves,  of  the  vicars  of  the  prophet,  soon  became  their  masters. 
Then  also  happened  what  had  happened  to  us.  Like  the  Goths  and 
other  northern  tril>es,  the  Turks,  ignorant  of  letters,  intent  on  con- 
quest, despised  what  they  could  not  understand,  dissipated  whatever 
monuments  of  science  or  of  taste  the  Almanzors  and  Almamons  had 
collected,  discouraged  every  liberal  pursuit,  and  breathing  the  genuine 
spirit  of  the  caliph  Omar  when  he  commanded  the  Alexandrian 
library  to  be  consumed,  laid  the  foundations  of  the  most  permanent 
mental  slavery  by  which  the  human  race  had  ever  been  oppressed.1 

1   Muriann,  Hist,  of  Spain,  jmssini.  a  Anna],  Moslem.  iiUl. 

:;  inierbelot,  however,  (Bib.  Orient,  art.  Elm.)  speaks  more  favourably 
of  the  Turks  :  "  I  lulmit,"  lie  s;iys.  "at  the  time  of  tbeir  first  conquests  in 
Europe,  tliut  they  were  principally  addicted  to  martial  exercises  ;  but  they 
soon  became  a  highly  polished  people.  They  took  not,  indeed,  the  Greeks, 
whom  tlit-y  hud  subdued,  for  their  masters,  as  did  the  Romans  nnd  Saracens ; 
but  under  the  latter  they  studied,  and  they  translated  their  principal  works. 
Among  their  sultans  many  were  learned ;  and  it  may  be  remarked,  that 
they  never  build  a  mosque  without  adjoining  to  it  a  college." 


454  OF  THE  ARABIAN  OR  SARACENIC  LEARNING. 

I  must  now  briefly  speak  of  the  three  Arabian  historians  with 
whom  I  said  that  Europe  was  best  acquainted,  and  who,  giving  the 
outlines  of  great  enterprises  and  portraying  manners  and  characters 
widely  differing  from  our  own,  may  be  perused  with  pleasure  even 
under  the  disadvantages  of  a  translation.  Of  the  three,  Bohaden  is 
the  first  in  point  of  time,  as  he  flourished  in  the  twelfth  century.  He 
was  contemporary  with  the  celebrated  Saladin,  the  History  of  whose 
life  he  wrote,  particularly  that  portion  of  it  which  was  connected 
with  the  third  crusade  and  his  capture  of  Jerusalem.  As  Bohadin 
was  an  eye  witness  of  many  events  which  he  relates,  and  personally 
acquainted  with  the  sultan,  by  whom  he  was  employed  in  high 
offices,  his  narrative  is  peculiarly  interesting.  He  attended  his 
master  through  the  most  active  period  of  his  life,  was  with  him  in 
his  last  sickness,  and  a  witness  of  his  death.  The  portrait  which  he 
draws  of  his  justice  and  affability,  his  severity  and  clemency,  exem- 
plified in  appropriate  anecdotes,  gives  us  the  striking  picture  of  an 
Eastern  hero,  the  truth  of  which  contemporary  Latin  writers  are 
compelled  reluctantly  to  own.  He  informs  us  that  in  his  conversa- 
tion Saladin  was  singularly  elegant  and  pleasing ;  that  he  was 
accurately  acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  several  Arabian  tribes, 
their  rites  and  customs  ;  that  he  also  knew  the  genealogies  of  their 
horses ;  that  he  was  not  ignorant  of  what  was  curious  and  rare  in 
other  countries ;  that  he  was  particularly  attentive  in  his  inquiries 
about  the  health  of  his  friends,  their  illness,  their  medicines,  and 
other  circumstances  ;  that  his  discourse  was  free  from  all  obscenity 
and  scandal ;  and  that  he  was  peculiarly  compassionate  and  kind  to 
orphans  and  to  persons  advanced  in  years.  What  would  be  our 
estimate  of  the  intellectual  accomplishments  and  moral  qualities  of 
the  Christian  hero  Richard  if  we  placed  them  in  the  opposite  scale  ? 
But  I  do  not  know  that  he  appears  anywhere  to  greater  advantage 
than  in  the  pages  of  Bohadin,  who  could  be  just  even  to  an  adversary. 
The  historian  admits  that  he  was  uncommonly  active,  of  great  spirit 
and  firm  resolution,  and  had  been  signalized  by  his  military  achieve- 
ments and  his  constant  intrepidity.  He  says  that  he  was  less 
esteemed  by  those  whom  he  led  than  the  king  of  France  (Philip 
Augustus)  on  account  of  his  kingdom  and  dignity,  but  more  abun- 
dant in  riches  and  more  illustrious  for  military  valour.1 

Abul  Farai,  by  us  called  Abulpharagius,  a  native  of  Armenia,  a 
Christian  and  a  physician,  lived  in  the  thirteenth  century.  He  is 
best  known  by  an  Abridgment  of  Universal  History r,  divided  into 
ten  parts  or  dynasties,  from  the  earliest  times  down  to  his  own. 
The  two  last  dynasties,  which  treat  of  Mahomet  and  the  caliphs,  of 
the  Mongul  Tartars,  and  the  victories  of  Jingez  Chan,  are  esteemed 
the  most  correct,  and  far  the  most  interesting  in  point  of  informa- 
tion. But  what  may  interest  us  most,  and  what  seems  to  form  the 

1  The  History  of  Bohadin  in  Arabic  and  Latin  was  published  by  Schultens 
at  Leyden,  in  1755. 


CONCLUSION.  455 

chief  merit  even  of  the  latter  dynasties,  is  the  account  which  he 
gives  of  the  state  of  learning  under  the  caliphs,  and  the  many  anec- 
dotes with  which  he  intersperses  it  of  philosophers,  physicians,  and 
celebrated  men.  To  this  account  I  have  not  been  inattentive. 
Notwithstanding  his  religious  profession,  Abul  Farai  was  much  fol- 
lowed by  the  Moslems,  as  a  teacher  in  the  various  branches  of 
science  as  well  as  in  medicine,  and  the  inflated  diction  in  which  they 
speak  of  his  mental  endowments  and  powers  is  truly  Arabian.  lie 
was  the  prince,  they  say,  of  sages,  the  most  excellent  of  the  excel- 
lent, the  model  of  his  times,  the  glory  and  phoenix  of  the  age.1 

The  last  of  this  triumvirate  is  Ismael  Abulfeda,  a  Syrian  prince 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  the  author  of  a  work  on  Geography,  and 
of  a  General  History.  Of  this  history,  as  was  said  of  that  of  Abul 
Farai,  the  roost  detailed  and  amusing  portion  is  the  narrative  of 
Mahomet  and  his  successors,  which  is  also  enriched  with  anecdotes 
on  learning  and  learned  men.  These  Arabian  historians  have  been 
said  from  this  consideration  to  bear  some  resemblance  to  the  Grecian 
Plutarch,  but  here  the  resemblance  must  cease.  An  account  of  the 
Lift-  of  Saladin,  from  whom  Abulfeda  is  said  to  have  descended, 
forms  the  last  portion  of  his  history." 

I  could  now  proceed3  to  enlarge  this  sketch  of  Arabian  literature 
with  much  additional  matter,  but  I  presume  that  enough  has  been 
said  to  convey  some  idea  to  the  reader  on  the  subject,  and  at  least 
enough  to  answer  the  distinct  object  which  I  had  in  view.  And  I 
hope  that  he  who  peruses  these  pages  will  not  fail  to  keep  in  mind, 
that  while  he  admires  at  Bagdad,  at  Cairo,  at  Fez,  or  at  Corduba, 
the  laudable  exertion  of  talents  and  the  display  of  taste,  a  mental 
lethargy  is  in  the  meantime  oppressing  all  the  kingdoms  of  Europe, 
or  that  if  some  literary  efforts  were  occasionally  made,  they  served 
only  to  betray  the  obliquities  of  reason,  and  a  general  absence  of 
critical  discernment.  The  golden  age  of  Arabia  was  the  leaden  age 
of  Europe. 

Yet  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  Oriental  literature,  though,  com- 
pared with  ours  during  the  same  period,  it  bore  a  high  value,  has 
too  much  prodigality  of  praise.  What  is  understood  by 


1  A  line  edition  of  this  author,  in  Arabic  and  Latin,  was  given  by  the 
learned  Pococke,  in  IlHi:!,  •>  vols.  -ito. 

-  The  (ji-injrn)iliij  of  Abulfeda,  and  iliftVivnt  parts  of  his  History  have  been 
separately  published,  at  different  times:  the  first,  as  it  relates  to  Mahomed, 
'Oilier,  in  17',J.-!:  the  second,  which  includes  tin-  history  <>f  the  Arabians 
mid  their  caliphs  from  the  first  year  of  the  l|p<rira  lij'.'  to  I  (>!">.  in  17  Jl,  by 
I.Viske:  the  third,  on  the  /,/'/;•  of  Saladin,  by  Scliultens,  in  17")."),  who  sub- 
joined it  to  the  work  of  Bohadin. 

;  The  i'iblinihe<|iie  (  irientale  of  D'llerbelot,  which  lies  before  me,  is  a 
rich  npodtory  of  Arabian  knowledge.  liis  principal  ^nidc  in  his'ury  is 
Khondeniir,  a  IVrsiun.  who  lived  as  late  as  the  lit'ieenth  century,  who  seeins 
to  have,  compiled  his  work,  from  the  creation  of  tin-  woibl  to  his  own  time, 
from  authentic  sources,  with  singular  precision,  and  attention  to  order. 


456  OF  THE  ARABIAN  OR  SARACENIC  LEARNING. 

few,  is  usually  magnified  beyond  its  proper  dimensions  by  vanity  or 
by  ignorance.  An  able  critic1  remarks,  that  from  our  education  in 
the  Greek  and  Latin  schools,  we  have  fixed  in  our  minds  a  standard 
of  exclusive  taste,  and  when  to  this  standard  we  bring  the  poetry  of 
the  East,  its  history,  or  its  other  literary  productions,  we  feel  and 
are  ready  to  pronounce  a  peremptory  decision.  Yet,  continues  the 
same  writer,  we  should  not  be  forward  to  condemn  the  literature 
and  judgment  of  nations  of  whose  language  we  are  ignorant.  I  will 
add,  that  their  manners,  sentiments,  and  habits  widely  differed  from 
our  own.  But  in  these  respects  did  not  the  ancient  Greeks  and 
Romans  differ  from  us  ?  and  yet  we  admire  their  compositions  as 
excellent,  and"  even  those  who  read  them  only  in  translations  are 
disposed  to  admit  them  as  models  of  taste.  Nature,  though  various, 
is  everywhere  simple.  The  gradations  of  character  are  uniform ; 
the  rule  of  right  and  wrong  is  not  affected  by  climate ;  virtue  is 
universally  deemed  amiable,  and  vice  odious.  The  perceptions  of 
mind  are  analogous  to  these ;  and  when  mental  perceptions  are 
described  in  words,  in  order  to  be  true,  they  must  be  an  accurate 
transcript. 

Our  classics,  it  is  added,  had  much  to  teach,  and  the  Arabians 
had  much  to  learn.  They  had  to  learn  the  temperate  dignity  of 
style,  the  graceful  proportions  of  art,  the  forms  of  visible  and  intel- 
lectual beauty,  the  just  delineation  of  character  and  passion,  the 
rhetoric  of  narrative  and  argument,  the  regular  fabric  of  epic  and 
dramatic  poetry.  But  confident  in  the  riches  of  their  native  tongue, 
they  disdained  the  study  of  any  foreign  idiom,  were  satisfied  with 
translations,  often  crude  and  imperfect,  and  disregarding,  chiefly  on 
account  of  their  mythology,  the  classical  beauties  of  the  Grecian 
school,  sought  improvement  only  in  the  graver  and  more  abstruse 
departments  of  science.  They  held  no  intercourse  with  us,  or  with 
our  genuine  guides  in  literature,  the  poets,  the  orators,  and  the  his- 
torians of  ancient  Rome  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  they  formed  their 
opinion  of  what  we  were  from  the  living  samples  which  were  too 
often  presented  to  their  view.  This  we  may  forgive,  and  let  us  be 
just.  The  Arabians  kept  the  lamp  of  science  burning,  during  the 
obscure  period  which  we  have  traversed,  and  their  example  contri- 
buted to  stimulate  not  a  few,  even  among  ourselves,  to  intellectual 
pursuits,  whilst  they  saved  in  their  versions  some  treatises  from  obli- 
vion, which  can  now  no  longer  be  found  in  the  original. 

1  The  author  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Rom.  Emp.  v.  430.  Mr. 
Gibbon,  as  an  historian,  has  many  equals ;  as  a  critic,  no  superiors. 


INDEX. 


ABATLA.RD,  Peter,  his  first  appearance  j 
as  a  nominalist  disputant,  191;  his 
account  of  his  reasons  for  embracing  j 
this  career,  192;  gives  lectures  in  and 
near  Paris,  ib.;  attends  the  lectures  [ 
of  Anselm,    19.3 ;  _his   character    of 
Anselm,    id.;    his    commentary    on  j 
Ezekiel,  194;  his  success  as  a  lecturer,  | 
id.;    liis    amour    with    Heloisa,   ib.; 
founds  the   Paraclete,  195  ;   returns  | 
to  the  monastery  of  St.  Gildas,  IDI;  ; 
his    coiTespondence     with     Heloisa, 
I:1";  characterized,  ib.;   appears  be-  ; 
fore   the   synod    of   Sens,    198  ;   his  I 
death,  ib.;  his  epitaph,  199. 

Abassides,  dynasty  of,  its  tendency  to  j 
intellectual  pursuits,  440. 

Abdalla,    Mohamed    Hen,   account    of,  j 
440 ;    extracts   from  his  History   of 
Granada,  444. 

Abdalrahmau  II.,  his  virtues  and 
talents,  441. 

Abdalrahman  III.,  his  beneficent  reign, 
441. 

Abul  Farai,  account  of  his  history,  454. 

Abulfeda,  account  of  his  history,  455. 

Achaian  league,  dissolution  of  the,  54. 

Acropolites,  George,  his  Chronicle,  396. 

Adrian,  an  African  abbot,  appointed  to 
•e  of  Canterbury,  but  declines  the 
post,  92  ;  his  efforts  in  a  subordinate 
capacity  to  raise  the  intellectual  cha- 
racter of  England,  ib. 

Adrian,  the  emperor,  characterized,  G. 

Adrian  IV.,  pope,  his  interview  with 
John  of  Salisbury,  211. 

Agatho,  pope,  his  account  of  the  state 
of  learning  at  Rome  in  his  time,  82. 

Alabar,  his  Silken  (iarmcnt,  440. 

AJaric  takes  Rome,  U'. 

Albertus  Magnus,  account  of,  249. 

Albiruni.  hi*  tri-atiso  on  gems,  , 

Alcazuini.  his  geographical  treatise, 
The  H'im'if'it  <//  .\ 

Alciiin,  account  of  him  and  of  his  works, 
106 ;  a  letter  of  Iiis  to  Charlemagne, 
108. 


Aldhelm,  the  first  English  abbot  who 
composed  a  work  in  Latin,  93. 

Aldrisi,  mention  of  his  Geography,  437. 

Alexandria,  account  of,  by  Ammianus 
Marcellinus,  58. 

Alfarabi,  an  eminent  Arabian  philoso- 
pher, 420. 

Alfred,  king,  account  of  him,  119. 

Aihakem,  sultan,  his  learning  and 
patronage  of  literature,  442. 

Almamon,  the  caliph,  account  of  him, 
415  ;  his  patronage  of  learned  men,  16. 

Almanzor,  the  caliph,  his  encourage- 
ment of  letters,  414. 

Alnovairi,  his  General  History,  439. 

Al  Razis,  mention  of  him,  4i>7. 

Alsiuthi,  his  Ethiiipit:  Triumph,  439  ; 
his  History  of  Egypt,  il>. 

Aluam,  Ebn,  his  treatise  on  Agriculture, 
4-34. 

Amalasuntha.thedaughterof  Theodoric, 
account  of  her,  i>7. 

Ammianus  Marcellinus,  account  of  his 
History  of  Rome,  32. 

Ammonius,  founder  of  the  new  Platonic 
sect,  5!». 

Anselm,  St.,  abbot  of  Bea,  account  of, 
172;  and  of  his  works,  173;  effect 
of  his  works  on  the  philosophy  of  the 
age,  ib.;  his  eminence  as  a  meta- 
physician, 174;  is  made  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  id. ;  takes  a  prominent 
part  at  the  council  of  Bari,  17">. 

Anthemius  constructs  the  mosque  of  St. 
Sophia,  3  "><;. 

Anthology,  collections  of  Greek,  405. 

Antonines,  the  emperors,  their  peculiar 
attention  to  the  sophists,  39. 

Antoninus  Pius,  the  emperor,  character- 
ised, 7. 

Apollo  Belvidere,  the,  its  tranference  to 
Rome  from  Delphi,  39. 

Aquinas.  Tlioma-,  account  of,  '.'17; 
character  of  his  writings,  -'  I ". 

Arabians,  their  literary  obligations  to 
the  Greeks,  350  ;  their  contempt  of 
all  languages  but  their  own,  440; 


458 


INDEX. 


their  natural  inclination  for  letters, 
412  ;  variety  of  their  language,  ib. 

Arabic  language,  its  force  and  variety, 
412. 

Arabic  writings,  general  character  of, 
435. 

Architecture,  taste  acquired  by  the 
Romans  for,  38  ;  its  injuries  at  the 
hands  of  the  early  Christians,  51; 
civil,  progress  of,  218;  ecclesiastical, 
its  progress,  215;  greatly  fostered  by 
the  pope,  219;  Gothic,  remark  as  to 
the  period  of  its  origin,  74  ;  military, 
of  the  middle  ages,  described,  218. 

Aristotle,  his  works  first  published  in 
Rome,  56  ;  progress  of  his  philosophy 
in  the  middle  ages,  191 ;  review  of 
the  fortunes  of  his  authority  in  Europe 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  256. 

Arithmetic,  services  rendered  by  the 
Arabians  in  the  development  of  this 
science,  436. 

Arthur  and  Charlemagne,  the  first  and 
original  heroes  of  our  northern  ro- 
mance, 230. 

Art,  remains  of  ancient,  collected,  330  ; 
modern,  impulse  given  to,  by  the 
discoveries  in  the  fourteenth  century 
of  monuments  of  ancient  art,  331. 

Arts,  the  fine,  indifference  of  the  earlier 
Romans  to  them,  38  ;  progress  of  a 
taste  for  at  Rome,  ib. ;  their  decline  at 
Rome,  after  the  reign  of  Adrian,  39 ; 
injured  by  the  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity, 51 ;  state  of  in  Italy  under 
the  Lombards,  S3 ;  state  of  in  the 
twelfth  century,  219. 

Ascetic  works,  Arabian,  account  of, 
430. 

Astrology,  ardently  cultivated  by  the 
Europeans  in  the  twelfth  century,  199; 
judicial,  a  favourite  study  with  the 
Arabians,  436. 

Athenseus,  account  of  his  Deipnosophistcr, 
389. 

Athens,  its  political  state  after  the 
Macedonian  war,  55;  taken  and 
sacked  by  Sylla,  ib.;  literary  condition 
of,  in  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  341;  schools  of,  much  fre- 
quented in  the  fourth  century,  59. 

Augustan  era,  account  of,  1. 

Augustus,  the  emperor,  his  patronage 
of  intellectual  men,  2  ;  founds  two 
public  libraries  at  Rome,  36 ;  their 
destruction,  ib. 


Aulus  Gellius,  character  of  his  Noctes 

Attica:,  35. 
Augustine,  St.  eulogy  of,  50 ;  defects  of 

his  style,  ib.;  97. 
Averroes,  account  of,  428. 
Avicenna,  mention  of  Mm,  427. 


BACON,  Roger,  account  of,  251. 
'  Bagdad,  the  seat  of  the  caliphate  trans- 
ferred to,  414;  cultivation  of  litera- 
ture hi  that  city  under  Almanzor  and 
his  successors,  414. 

|  Bohadin,  account  of  his  History,  454. 
\  Balsamon,  Theodore,  his  great  learning, 

396. 

i  Bangor,  monastery  of,  immense  number 
of  its  inmates,  91. 

Barbarians,  their  conquests,  12,  13 ; 
account  of  their  settlements  hi  Europe, 
61;  then-  numbers  overstated  by  his- 
torians, 62  ;  were  they  really  as  bar- 
barous as  they  have  been  repre- 
sented, 65;  Jornandes'  account  of 
them,  ib. 

Barbarism,  direction  of  its  progress,  114. 

Bardas,  his  encouragement  of  literature, 
365. 

Barlaam,  his  controversy  with  Palamas 
about  the  situation  of  the  celestial 
light  of  the  soul,  403. 

Basil,  council  of,  317. 

Basil,  the  emperor,  his  reign,  371. 

Basil  II.,  emperor,  his  contempt  for  lite- 
rature, 375. 

Becket,  Thomas  a,  his  patronage  of  Ox- 
ford, 205. 

Benedictine  order,  its  long-sustained, 
fame,  185. 

Bernard,  St.,  account  of,  186;  his  works, 
189  ;  opposes  Abailard,  196  ;  procures 
the  spiritual  condemnation  of  Albert, 
bishop  of  Poitiers,  for  latitude  in  theo- 
logical philosophising,  201. 

Bee,  celebrity  of  the  school  of,  under 
Lanfranc,  161 ;  may  be  considered  as 
the  origin  of  universities,  11. 

Bede,  Venerable,  account  of  him  and  of 
his  works,  94. 

Belisarius,  commences  the  Gothic  "VYar, 
75  ;  his  progress,  ib. 

Benedict  IX.,  pope,  account  of  him,  147. 

Berenger,  archdeacon  of  Angiers,  cha- 
racterised, 159. 

Bessarion,  cardinal,  account  of,  324. 

Boccaccio,  account  of  him,  291. 


INDEX. 


459 


Boetius,  account  of  him,  71  ;  remarks 
upon  his  works,  98. 

Bologna,  early  celebrity  of  its  schools  of 
jurisprudence,  158. 

Bonaventure,  St.,  account  of,  249. 

Boniface  VIII.,  his  political  designs,  237. 

Books,  transcription  of  by  the  monks, 
infinite  blunders  in,  127  ;  illustrations 
of  their  extreme  scarcity  and  value  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  128;  the  fault  of 
this  chargeable  upon  the  indolence 
of  the  monkish  transcribers,  129;  their 
scarcity,  240 ;  large  fortunes  made 
by  lending  them  out  to  be  read,  ib. ; 
aggregation  of  in  14th  cent.  323. 

Bracciolini,  Poggio,  his  researches  for 
ancient  manuscripts,  322  ;  excellence 
of  his  Latin  style,  329; 

Britain,  happy  effects  of  its  conversion 
to  Christianity,  89  ;  its  constant  inter- 
course with  Rome  after  its  cor  version, 
90. 

British  bishops,  their  conference  with  St. 
Angus  tin  at  Bangor,  91. 

Britons,  their  sufferings  after  the  depar- 
ture of  the  Romans,  i;a. 

Bryennius,  Nicephorus,  mention  of  him, 
38  ;  his  history  of  Alexius  Comnena, 
385. 

Byzantine  historians  characterized,  355. 

CAMBRIDGE,  university  of,  its  wretched 

condition  prior  to  the  12th  cent.,  205  ; 

its  revival  under  Henry  I.,  it.;  course 

of  study  at,  ib. 
Canon  andcivil  laws,  effect  of  their  being 

jointly  studied  in  the  Middle  Ages, 

214. 
Cant  aruzenus,  John,  account  of  him,  401; 

his  Memoirs  of  His  own  Time,  402. 
Canute,   accession   of,   to   the   English 

throne,  1«3  ;  character  of  his  govern- 
ment, Hi. 
Capellu,  Marcianus,  his  Treatise  on  the 

Liberal  Arts,  97. 
Capet,  Robert,  his  patronage  of  learning, 

158. 
Cassiodorus,  account  of  him  and  of  his 

works,  70. 
Castled,  great  number  of,  in  the  Middle 

Ages,  218. 
Cato,  his  endeavour  to  repress  the  rising 

love  of  letters  in  Rome,  54. 
Cedmon,  the  miraculous  way  in  which  a 

young  man  of  tiiis  name  became  a 

proficient  in  music,  223, 


Cedrenus,  his  Abridgment  of  Historic*, 
380. 

Celestial  light  of  the  soul,  curious  con- 
troversy as  to  its  position,  400. 

Chalcondyles,  Laonicus,  his  History, 
410. 

Champeaux,  William  de,  delivers  the 
earliest  lectures  in  scholastic  theology, 
191  ;  made  bishop  of  Chalons,  193. 

Charlemagne,  characterized,  100 ;  his 
attention  to  literature,  ib.;  prospects 
opened  to  literature  by  his  patronage 
of  it,  101 ;  extent  of  his  empire,  103  ; 
circumstances  which  prevented  the 
success  of  liis  efforts  for  the  promo- 
tion of  literature,  103;  his  endeavours 
to  remedy  abuses  in  church  and  state, 
105  ;  his  death,  106  ;  influence  of  his 
example,  ib.;  his  efforts  to  convert 
the  Saxons,  115. 

Charlemagne  and  Arthur,  the  first  and 
original  heroes  of  our  northern  ro- 
mance, 230. 

Chaucer,  account  of  him,  300  ;  degree  of 
his  learning,  304;  inferiority  of  hia 
claims  to  our  gratitude,  with  reference 
to  intellectual  progress,  in  comparison 
with  those  of  Dante  and  Petrarch, 
306. 

Chicheley,  Henry,  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, account  of,  338. 

Ohristchurch,  Canterbury,  mention  of  its 
rebuilding  in  1174—1184,  216. 

Christianity,  inquiry  into  its  influence 
on  heathen  literature  and  art,  46  ;  its 
adverse  influence,  at  first,  on  the  fine 
arts,  51  ;  progress  of  its  diffusion 
among  the  northern  pagans,  113  ;  its 
civilizing  effects,  ll">. 

Christians,  the  early,  their  application 
to  literature  and  philosophy,  49  ;  ex- 
cellence of  their  productions,  ib.; 
early,  their  services  in  the  revival  of 
'  art,  219. 

Chroniclers  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries  characterized,  157. 

Chrysoloras,  Manuel,  mention  of,  324. 

Churchmen,  general  ignorance  of  the, 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  114. 

Cicero,  his  estimate  of  Roman  oratory, 
5  ;  eulogium  upon,  14. 

Ciriaco  of  Ancona,  his  antiquarian  zeal, 
331. 

Cistercian  order,  rise  of,  1  ^">. 

Citeaux,  monks  of,  their  austere  virtues, 
in  the  outset  of  their  order,  I  *'•. 


460 


INDEX. 


Clairvaux,  abbey  of ;  account  of  its  con- 
dition under  St.  Bernard,  187. 

Classical  writings  superseded  by  the 
works  of  monkish  writers  in  the  early 
mediaeval  schools,  191. 

Classical  authors,  discovery  of  their 
works  in  the  fourteenth  century,  322  ; 
translations  of,  326. 

Claudian,  account  of,  24;  eulogium  of, 

a>. 

Clergy,  the  higher  Koman,  their  en- 
couragement of  learning  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  321. 

Climachus,  John,  his  Climax,  or  Ladder 
of  Paradise,  360. 

Clovis  establishes  the  seat  of  his  empire 
at  Paris,  63. 

Colleges,  mention  of  the  first  established 
in  our  universities,  216;  progress  of, 
333,  336,  339. 

Comnena,  Alexius,  emperor,  account  of, 
380  ;  his  policy  with  reference  to  the 
crusaders,  381. 

Comnena,  Anna,  account  of  her,  381 ; 
her  ambition,  382  ;  her  Alexiad,  385. 

Comnena,  John,  his  excellent  adminis- 
tration, 383. 

Comnena,  Manuel,  Ins  policy  towards 
the  crusaders,  386. 

Constance,  council  of,  315. 

Constantino,  the  emperor,  characterized, 
9 ;  removes  the  seat  of  empire  to 
Byzantium,  ib.;  his  alleged  Donation, 
151. 

Constantine  Porphyrogenitus,  account 
of,  372  ;  his  encouragement  of  litera- 
ture, ib. 

Constantinople,  removal  of  the  seat  of 
the  Koman  empire  to  this  city,  9 ; 
taken  by  the  Latins,  391 ;  destruction 
of  its  monuments  of  art,  392  ;  list  of 
these,  ib.;  recovered  by  the  Greeks,394; 
benefits  derived  to  literature  from  the 
taking  of,  by  the  Latins,  ib. ,-  taken 
by  the  Turks,  410. 

Constantius,  the  emperor,  his  patronage 
of  letters,  60. 

Constans,  the  emperor,  despoils  Rome  of 
all  its  bronze  monuments,  83. 

Controversy,  beneficial  effect  of  on  the 
intellect,  117. 

Cordova,  extent  of  its  rule,  442. 

Council  of  Ferrara  and  Florence,  407. 

Croyland,  history  of  the  abbey  of,  by 
Ingulphus,  described,  170. 

Croyland  abbey,  account  of  its  rebuilding 


216 ;  ceremony  of  laying  the  first  stone 
described,  ib. 

Crusades,  the,  character  of,  177  ;  their 
origin,  178  ;  opening  of  the  first,  178  ; 
their  ill  effect  upon  literature,  179  ; 
their  consequences  in  other  respects, 
ib.;  productive  of  no  large  benefit  to 
society,  240. 

Crusaders,  their  idea  of  seizing  Con- 
stantinople, 386  ;  turned  from  the  pro- 
ject by  the  sophistical  eloquence  of 
Michael,  bishop  of  Philippopolis,  387. 

D'AuEMBERT,  his  remarks  upon  Tacitus, 
28. 

Damascenus,  St.  John,  account  of  him, 
363. 

Damianus,  bishop  of  Ostia,  character  of 
his  -writings,  154  ;  a  letter  of  his,  de- 
precating war,  ib. 

Danes,  their  aggressions  upon  England, 
162 ;  their  comparative  refinement  of 
manners,  163. 

Dante,  account  of  him,  278. 

Delphi,  temple  of,  despoiled  by  the 
agents  of  Nero,  39. 

Denina,  his  praise  of  the  early  Christians 
as  writers,  50. 

Diceto,  Ralph  de,  account  of  him  and 
his  histories,  208. 

Dion  Cassius  characterized,  57. 

Dominic,  St.,  account  of,  242. 

Dominicans,  rise  of  the  order,  242  ;  their 
progress,  ib.;  their  services  in  the 
cause  of  intellectual  improvement, 
243 ;  resort  to  Oxford,  245 ;  their 
conflicts  with  the  Franciscans,  246. 

Domitian,  the  emperor,  his  zeal  in  the 
service  of  literature,  36. 

Doniro  of  Canossa,  account  of,  156  ;  his 
poetical  life  of  the  countess  Matilda 
characterized,  ib. ;  specimens  of  the 
work,  ib. ;  his  epitaph  on  the  countess 
Matilda's  relatives,  222. 

Dramatic  poetry  not  followed  by  the 
Arabians,  423. 

Ducas,  Constantine,  emperor,  charac- 
terized, 377. 

Ducas,  Michael,  his  History,  410. 

Dungal,  his  gift  of  books  to  the  monas- 
tery of  Bobbio,  122. 

Duns  Scotus,  mention  of  him,  297. 

Dunstan,  St.,  account  of  him,  132. 

EADMER,  his  life  of  St.  Anselm,  account 
of,  175. 


INDEX. 


461 


Ebn  Albaithar,  physician,  account  of 
him,  43.'. 

Ecclesiastical  studies  in  the  fourteenth 
century  adverse  to  polite  literature,  ! 
305. 

Education,  character  of  that  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  304. 

Edward  the  Confessor,  his  accession, 
164;  favour  shown  by  him  to  the 
Normans,  ib. 

Eginhard,  account  of  him,  109. 

Eloquence,  decline  of  at  Rome,  5 ; 
causes  of  the  decline  of,  43. 

Elocution,  observations  upon,  by  Quin- 
tilian,  16. 

England,  barren  state  of  its  literature 
in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries, 
It;-.'  ;  its  intellectual  and  moral  con- 
dition after  the  Norman  conquest,  166. 

English  language,  attempts  of  William 
the  Conqueror  to  suppress  it,  1(>7  ; 
failure  of  the  attempts,  168;  observa- 
tions on  this  failure,  ib. ;  its  progress, 
263  ;  distinction  between  it  and  the 
Saxon,  2<>5 ;  its  progress  among  the 
higher  classes,  303. 

Ennodius,  account  of  his  works,  72. 

Epictetus,  his  Enchiridion  characterized, 
57. 

Erasmus,  his  criticism  upon  Symmachus, 
20;  his  panegyric  of  St.  Jerome,  49; 
his  high  opinion  of  St.  Basil,  60. 

Erigena,  John,  account  of  him,  116; 
his  treatise  on  the  nature  of  things, 
ib.;  his  doctrine  characterized,  ib. 

Ethics,  Arabian,  account  of,  429. 
Kt>imnl(>t!i< '"it  Magnum,  mention  of  tliis 

work,  374. 
Eugenius  IV.,  pope,  his  encouragement 

of  letters,  SI 7. 
Europe,  literary  aspect  of,  in  the  first 

half  of  the  15th  century,  332. 
Eustathius,  bishop  of  Thessalonica,  ac- 
count of  him,  388  ;  his  commentary 
on  Homer,  ib. 

Eutychians,  reference  to  their  doctrines, 
357. 


F  ATI  MITES  of  Africa,  their  encourage- 
ment of  learning,  417. 

Florence,  council  of,  317. 

Florence  of  Worcester,  liis  Clinmicli- 
characterized,  206. 

Floras,  Annseus,  his  history  character- 
ized, 2G. 


Forturatus,  Venantius,  character  of  his 
poetry,  87. 

France,  state  of  its  literature  after  the 
extinction  of  the  Carlovingian  race, 
158;  hi  the  fourteenth  century,  307. 

Francis,  St.,  account  of,  244  ;  in  point  of 
time,  the  first  Italian  poet,  ib. 

Franciscans,  rise  of  the  order,  241;  cha- 
racterized, ib.;  their  services  to  litera- 
ture, 244;  their  progress,  245;  resort 
to  Oxford,  ib.;  their  conflicts  with 
the  Dominicans,  246. 

Franks,  their  settlement  in  Gaul,  62. 

Frederic  II.,  the  emperor,  his  patronage 
of  literature,  233. 

Froissard,  account  of,  309 ;  beauty  of 
his  style,  311. 

GAULS,  kept  from    knowledge   by  the 

Druids,  67;  their  superiority  to  the 

Goths,  ib. 

Gazzali,  account  of,  428. 
Genseric,  takes  and  sacks  Home,    12  ; 

his  conquests  in  Africa,  63. 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,   his  Ilixturi/  of 

Britain,  263. 
Geographical  studies,  earnestly  pursued 

by  the  Arabians,  427. 
Germanicus,  his  taste  for  poetry,  20. 
Germany,  permanency  of  its  liberty,  and 

national  manners,  63. 
Germans,  their  superiority  to  the  Goths, 

67. 
Gerson,  his  assertion  of  the  supremacy 

of  general  councils,  316. 
Gervasius  of  Canterbury,  character  of 

liis  works,  208. 
Giraldus  Cambrensis,  account  of  him, 

209;  and  of  liis  works,  210. 
Glass,  painting  on,  introduction  of  into 

England,  220. 
God  of  the  Christians,  impossibility  of 

representing  Him  in  scripture,  .'12. 
Gulden  Legend,  The,  account  of,  259. 
Gothic  kings  of  Italy,  succession  of,  74. 
Gothic  style  of  building,  its  resemblance 

to  the  literary  taste   of  the  period, 

218. 

Gothic  war,  account  of  it,  7-r>. 
Goths,  their  origin,  til;   their  di*tasti- 

for  literature,  67  ;  illustration  of  their 

hostility  to  letters,  ib.;  their  venera- 
tion for  the  ministers  of  religion,  70. 
Grammar,  Arabian,  remarks  upon  this 

branch  of  .Moorish  literature,  419;  its 

vast  extent,  ib. 


462 


INDEX. 


Grammarians,  Arabian,  list  of,  and  re- 
marks upon,  419. 
Granada,  fall  of,  433. 
Greece,  despoiled  of  her  treasures  of  art 
by  the  Roman  conquerors,  37  ;  made 
a  Roman  province,  54. 
Greek  language,  general  cultivation  of 
among  the  later  Latins,  46;  its  long 
vitality,  60;   its  long  duration  in  a 
pure  state,  353. 

Greeks,  learned,  at  Rome,  53,  55,  57  ;  in 
Italy,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  ac- 
count of,  324 ;  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, 409. 

Greek  literature,  greatly  cultivated  in 
the  fourteenth  century,  325  ;  received 
an  impulse  from  the  transference  of 
the  seat  of  empire  to  Byzantium,  349; 
its  low  state  in  the  eleventh  century, 
378  ;  extensive  destruction  of  its  mo- 
numents at  the  taking  of  Constan- 
tinople by  the  Latins,  393. 
Greek  philosophy  in  favour  among  the 
early  Christians,  10 ;  its  position 
among  the  Arabians,  429. 
Greeks,  their  gradual  degeneracy  after 
the  age  of  Alexander,  54  ;  their  lite- 
rary eminence  at  the  close  of  the  fifth 
century,  349;  never  wrote  in  the 
Latin  language,  ib.;  their  literary  in- 
dustry, 375. 

Greeks  of  the  lower  empire,  their  resist- 
ance to  the  Iconoclasm  of  Leo  the 
Isaurian,  361;  state  of  literature 
among  them  in  the  eighth  century, 
ib. 

Gregory  of  Cyprus,  mention  of,  399. 
Gregory  the  Great,  his  account  of  the 
Lombard   devastations,  79 ;    inquiry 
into  his  character,  81 ;  his  instructions 
with  respect  to  the  British  converts, 
90 ;  character  of,  his  style  of  com- 
position,    150 ;    mischievous    effects 
of  his    ambition,  ib.;  his  '  energetic 
promotion  of  the  Crusades,  178  ;  poli- 
tical soundness  of  his  views,  ib. 
Gregoras,  Nicephorus,  his  History,  403. 
Gregory  of  Tours,  account  of  his  works, 

86. 

Grosteste,  Robert,  bishop  of  Lincoln,  ac- 
count of,  254. 

Gunpowder  in  use  among  the  Arabians 
at  an  early  period,  438. 

HA&ES,  Alexander,  mention  of,  149. 
Heloisa,  her  amour  with  Abailard,  194  ; 


takes  the  veil  at  Argenteuil,  195 ;  cha- 
racter of  her  mind,  198. 

Henry  I.  of  England,  account  of,  202  ; 
nature  of  the  learning  for  which  he  is 
celebrated,  203 ;  the  effect  he  pro- 
duced upon  pope  Callixtus,  ib. 

Henry  Plantagenet,  his  encouragement 
of  the  liberal  arts,  204. 

Heraclius,  the  emperor,  account  of  his 
reign,  357. 

Heresies,  advantages  to  literature  at- 
tending their  rise,  159  ;  ages,  mention 
of  various,  in  the  middle  ages,  184. 

Hincmar,  archbishop  of  Rheims,  obser- 
vations on  him,  118. 

Histories  Augusta,  account  of,  31. 

Historians  of  the  twelfth  century,  ob- 
servations upon  the,  210;  English,  in 
the  fourteenth  century,  character- 
ized, 307. 

Historical  writers  in  the  tliirteenth  cen- 
tury, observations  upon  them,  258; 

History,  decline  of  in  Italy,  25;  charac- 
ter of  the  writers  of,  in  this  period  of 
decline,  26  ;  great  attention  paid  to 
this  study  by  the  Arabians,  438. 

Honain,  physician,  account  of,  431. 

Howden,  or  Hoveden,  Roger  de,  account 
of  him  and  his  Annals,  208. 

Huns,  their  invasion  of  Europe,  64  ; 
account  of  them  by  Jornandes,  ib. 

Hunt,  Leigh,  his  translation  of  an 
Anacreontic  song  by  Mapes,  221. 

IGNATIUS,  patriarch  of  Constantinople, 

deposition  of,  367;  controversies  on 

the  subject,  ib. 
Image-worship,  contest  respecting,   in 

the  first  century,  361 ;  writings  on  the 

subject,  362. 
Ingulphus  of  Croyland,  his  account  of 

Editha  Godwin,  165;  account  of  him, 

and  of  his  History  of  Croyland,  169. 
Investiture,  meaning  of  the  term,  180  ; 

the  agitation  to  which  the  question  of 

investitures  gave  rise  in  the  middle 

ages,  ib. 
Institutions  of  Quintilian  characterized, 

17. 
Innocent  III.,  pope,  his  great  learning, 

234 ;    encouragement  of   literature, 

235  ;  his  political  ambition,  237. 
Ireland,   state   of  its  learning  in  the 

early  mediaeval  period,  122. 
Isidore,  archbishop  of  Seville,  account 

of,  88  ;  his  Origins,  ib. 


INDEX. 


463 


Italian  language,  first  application  of  to 
the  purposes  of  literature,  226. 

Italian  literature,  account  of  its  decline, 
6  ;  injury  it  derived  from  the  removal 
of  the  seat  of  empire  to  Constantino- 
ple, 9  ;  in  the  thirteenth  century,  ob- 
servations upon,  2  <;•.'. 

Italians,  the  earlier,  their  taste  for  the 
arts,  40  ;  the  medizeval,  wrote  at  first 
in  the  Provencal  dialect,  229  ;  but  ere 
long  perfected  a  language  of  their 
own,  230. 

Italy,  its  condition  under  the  Lom- 
bards, 7H ;  literary  hopes  of  that 
country,  145  ;  its  disorganized  condi- 
tion in  the  latter  part  of  the  twelfth 
and  in  the  thirteenth  century,  231 ;  its 
political  arrangement,  232 ;  encou- 
ragement of  literature  on  the  part  of 
it-;  various  rulers,  id.;  rapid  progress 
of  its  intellectual  revival  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  296. 

JERUSALEM  taken  by  the  crusaders  in 
1099,  11  f. 

Jesus  Christ,  his  birth  said  by  the  Ara- 
bians to  have  been  foretold  by  Zoro- 
aster, 45.'.. 

Jews  had  schools  for  Hebrew  literature 
at  Oxford  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
256. 

John  the  Italian,  mention  of  him,  378. 

John  of  Salisbury,  a  pupil  of  Abailard, 
198  ;  account  of  him  and  his  works, 
211 ;  liis  conversation  with  Adrian 
IV 

Jones,  Sir  Win.,  observations  of  hisupon 
Arabian  poetry,  421. 

Jornandcs,  his  account  of  the  Huns,  64; 
Of  the  <;<>!!: 

Joseph  of  Exeter,  account  of,  271. 

Julian,  the  emperor,  characterized,  16  ; 
his  encouragement  of  literature,  ib. 

Julius  Caesar,  his  idea  of  forming  public 
libraries  at  Home,  36. 

.liirisprudenn  ,  its  decline  at  Rome,  34. 

Justinian,  the  emperor,  characterized, 
350 ;  imposes  silence  on  the  schools 
of  Athens,  ib.;  his  immediate  parti- 
cipation in  the  theological  controver- 
sies of  his  time,  3.11 ;  his  character  of 
learning,  :;.i.i ;  liis  encouragement  of 
architi-etiire,  )'..,•  erects  the  mosque  of 

St.   Sophi;,. 

Juvenal,  his  mention  of  Statius,  22  ; 
eulogy  of,  23. 


KNIGHT,  K.  P.,  his  observations  on  the 

progress  of  taste,  45. 
Knowledge,  great  thirst  of,  in  the  early 

part  of  the  twelfth  century,  197. 
Koran,  the,  characterized,  436. 

LACTANTII:S,  excellence  of  his  Latinity, 
48. 

La  Harpe,  his  criticism  on  Pliny's  Pa- 
negyric, 18  ;  his  criticism  upon  Clau- 
dian,  24  ;  his  eulogy  of  Tacitus,  28. 

Lanfranc,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  ac- 
count of  him,  160;  raised  to  the  see 
of  Canterbury,  168 ;  his  efforts  to  im- 
prove the  intellectual  condition  of 
England,  169  ;  his  death,  ib.;  inquiry 
into  the  real  character  of  his  mind, 
176. 

Latini,  Brunetto,  remarks  upon  this 
writer,  276. 

Latin  language,  its  purity  impaired  by 
the  general  cultivation  of  Greek,  46, 
and  by  other  causes,  47  ;  its  tenacity 
of  existence,  149  ;  progressive  infusion 
into  it  of  other  tongues,  ib.;  its  long 
duration  for  the  purposes  of  literary 
composition,  225;  general  use  of,  by 
the  learned  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
329  ;  character  of,  at  that  period,  ib. 

Latins,  then-  continued  intercourse  with 
Constantinople  after  its  recapture, 
benefits  of,  to  civilization,  397. 

Leander,  archbishop  of  Seville,  mention 
of  him,  88. 

Leland,  John,  his  character  of  William 
of  Malmesbury,  267. 

Leo  Africanus,  account  of  him,  437. 

Leo,  bishop  of  Thessalonica,  his  great 
learning,  366. 

Leo,  the  Isaurian,  liis  Iconoclasm,  361 ; 
instance  of  his  cruelty,  362. 

Leo  IX.  pope,  his  accession,  147  ;  his 
piety  and  learning,  ib.;  his  unsuccess- 
ful expedition  against  the  Norman 
settlers  in  Apulia,  1  !,>  ;  his  letter  to 
the  patriarch  Cerularius,  setting  forth 
the  alleged  Dotuttion  of  Constantine, 
151 ;  observations  on  the  subject,  ib. 

Leo  the  Wise,  emperor,  account  of,  371. 

Lexicography,  attention  paid  to  this 
branch  of  literature  by  the  Arabians, 
1  -.'.I. 

Liberty,  civil,  its  effect  upon  literature, 
.1,  IJ,  s  ;  its  effect  upon  jurisprudence. 
34. 

Libraries,  private,  their  increase  in  Koine, 


464 


INDEX. 


06  ;  their  dispersion,  37;  their  con- 
tents in  the  time  of  Paul  I.,  83  ;  in- 
crease of,  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
323  ;  royal,  of  the  Moors  in  Spain  and 
Africa,  extent  of,  417. 

Library,  public,  at  Constantinople, 
founded  by  Constantius,  GO  ;  forma- 
tion of  the  first,  at  Home,  35. 

Licentiousness  of  manners,  the,  pre- 
valent in  the  early  mediaeval  period, 
its  injurious  eifects  upon  literature, 
112. 

Literary  men  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
their  controversies,  32'5. 

Literature,  prospects  opened  to  it  in  the 
commencement  of  the  reign  of  Char- 
lemagne, 101 ;  circumstances  which 
prevented  the  success  of  Charlemagne's 
efforts  to  promote  it,  104  ;  its  condi- 
tion in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  cen- 
tury, 153  ;  how  affected  by  the 
crusades,  179 ;  progress  of  a  taste  for 
on  the  continent  in  the  case  of  Abai- 
lard,  202 ;  general  patronage  of  in 
the  twelfth  century,  231 ;  its  advance 
in  the  thirteen tli  century,  247 ;  fos- 
tered by  Almanzor  and  his  succes- 
sors, at  Bagdad,  414. 

Literature,  ecclesiastical,  its  claims 
upon  our  gratitude,  SO, 

Literature  in  Britain,  progress  of,  after 
the  conversion  of  the  island,  91. 

Literature  in  England,  its  progress 
under  king  Henry  Plantagenet,  204. 

Literature,  destruction  of  the  monu- 
ments of,  on  the  taking  of  Constanti- 
nople by  the  Turks,  410. 

Literature  in  Europe,  its  aspect  in  the 
first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  332. 

Literature,  Hebrew,  taught  at  Oxford 
by  learned  Jews,  256. 

Literature  in  Italy,  iiijiiries  it  suffered 
from  the  invasion  of  the  barbarians, 
1 3 ;  review  of  the  decay  of,  ib.; 
among  the  late  Latins,  decline  of 
and  observations  on  the  causes  of 
that  decline,  44  ;  its  condition  under 
the  Lombards,  79  ;  its  low  state 
under  Eugenius  II.,  111. 

Literature,  Moorish,  remarks  upon,  418. 

Locman,  account  of,  425. 

Lombards,  their  first  settlement  in 
Italy,  77  ;  inquiry  into  their  character 
and  that  of  their  rule,  78  ;  fall  of 
their  government  in  Italy,  85. 

Longinus,  account  of,  58. 


Lotharius,  his  edict  for  erecting  a  number 
of  schools  in  Italy,  110. 

Lower  empire,  its  extent  in  1355,  404. 

Lucan,  characterized  by  Quiutilian,  20; 
by  Tiraboschi,  21. 

Lucian  of  Samosata  characterized,  57. 

Lucius  Mummius,  on  the  conquest  of 
Corinth,  transfers  her  treasures  of  art 
to  Rome,  38. 

Luitprand,  the  Lombard  king,  account 
of  him,  84. 

Luitprand,  bishop  of  Cremona,  account 
of  him,  130 ;  his  first  embassy  to 
Constantinople,  373  ;  his  second  em- 
bassy, 375  ;  his  description  of  the 
Greek  court  and  of  the  Greeks,  378. 

Lyons,  account  of  its  foundation  and 
rapid  progress,  41 ;  the  peculiar  fa- 
vour shown  it  by  the  Koman  em- 
perors, ib.;  its  distinguished  literary 
taste,  ib. 


M-ECENAS,  the  effeminate  character  of 
his  mind,  15. 

Magic  and  astrology  cultivated  among 
the  Romans,  33. 

Mahoiumedans,  the  first,  their  contempt 
for  letters,  413. 

Maimonides,  mention  of  him,  43-'. 

Malmesbury,  William  of,  his  account  of 
the  court  of  Edward  the  Confessor, 
164;  his  character  of  the  Romans, 
166. 

Manetti,  Gianozzo,  account  of,  326. 

Mapes,  Walter,  anacreontic  song  of 
his,  220  ;  account  of  him,  221. 

Marcus  Aurelius,  the  emperor,  charac- 
terized, 7 ;  his  patronage  of  philoso- 
phers, 8. 

Martel,  Charles,  overthrows  the  Lom- 
bard government  in  Italy,  85. 

Martin  V.,  pope,  his  beneficent  reign, 
316. 

Mathematics,  attention  paid  to  by  the 
Arabians,  434. 

Maurus,  Rabanus,  account  of  him,  114. 

Medici,  Cosmo  de',  his  encouragement 
of  literature,  315. 

Medicine,  the  study  of,  ardently  fol- 
lowed by  the  Arabians,  43, 

Metaphrastes,  Simeon,  account  of,  373. 

Metochita,  Theodore,  account  of,  400. 

Meusel,  his  strictures  upon  Tacitus,  29  ; 
his  observations  upon  philosophy 
among  the  Romans,  33. 


INDEX. 


465 


Michael  the  Stammerer,  emperor,  his  ! 
hostility  to  literature.  365. 

Michael  VII.,  emperor,  characterized, 
377. 

Michael,  bishop  of  Philippopolis,  turns  j 
the  crusaders  from  their  idea  of  seizing  \ 
on  Constantinople,  387 ;  account  of  j 
nun,  Hi. 

Milan,  the  early  celebrity  of  its  schools,  j 
40. 

Minucius  Felix,  excellence  of  his  La- 
tinity,  is. 

Modern  languages,  their  rise,  224 ;  ob- 
servations on  their  formation,   22,". ; 
their  inadequacy  in  their  earlier  stages  \ 
to  the  purposes  of  literary  composition, 
226. 

Mohammedanism,  extent  of  its  rule  in 

Monastic  orders,  establishment  of  new, 
185 ;  progress  of,  241  ;  the  great  ser- 
vice they  rendered  literature  by  means 
of  their  lecturers,  2  ."»(.>. 

Monkish  institutions,  useful  in  the  dark 
ages,  from  keeping  up  literary  inter- 
course, 151. 

Monks,  occupation  of,  in  the  early  me- 
diaeval period,  126  ;  their  indolence, 
1 2  s  ;  employed  themselves  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  in  writing  tales  and 
poems,  199. 

Monothelitism,  account  of  the  doctrine, 
357  ;  adopted  by  Heraclius,  358, 

Moorish  power  in  Spain,  its  final  ex- 
tinction, 4-v:. 

Moschus,  John,  his  Meadow,  or  New 
Paradise, 

M  urutori,  his  commendation  of  the  Saxon 
schools,  121. 

Mu.-ic.  church,  its  position  in  the  twelfth 
century, 222 ;  liijrhestiinationin  which 
it  was  held. 

Myriobiblon  of  Photius,  account  of, 
369. 

NARSES  puts  an  end  to  the  dominion 

of  the  Goths  in  Italy,  27<;. 
Nature,  history  of,  attention  paid  to  it 

by  the  Arabians,    433  ;    account   of 

some  of  their  works    in    its  various 

branches,  ib. 

N.  rkhani,  Alexander,  account  of,  272. 
Nero,  the  emperor,  his  encouragement 

of  the  arts,  38. 

Restoring, reference  to  his  doctrines,  357. 
Nicetas  of  Cliona,  account  of,  395. 


Nicephorus,  patriarch  of  Constantinople, 
account  of,  364. 

Nicholas  V.,  pope,  his  learning  and 
virtues,  SIS;  his  encouragement  of 
literature,  ib. 

Nominalists,  their  doctrine,  193. 

Norman  conquest  improved  the  intel- 
lectual condition  of  England,  l«7. 

Norman  settlers  in  Italy,  account  of 
them,  148;  influence  of  their  language 
on  the  Lathi  tongue,  i/i. 

Northern  dialects,  their  early  adequacy 
to  the  purposes  of  literature,  231. 

Northmen,  their  rapid  progress  in  civili- 
zation after  their  settlement  in  France, 
1(50. 

ODOACER  assumes  the  throneof  Italy,  12. 

Ommiade  dynasty  in  Spain,  their  en- 
couragement of  learning,  417. 

Oratoribus,  De  Claris,  account  of  this 
work,  and  extracts  from  it,  4:};  its 
solution  of  the  cause  of  the  decline  of 
eloquence,  44. 

Oratory,  excellence  of  the  Romans  in, 
215. 

Origen,  excellence  of  his  Latinity,  48. 

Orosius,  Paulus,  characterized,  ;>2. 

Ordeal,  trial  by,  account  of,  176;  in- 
stances of,  177. 

Otho  the  Great,  benefit  of  his  govern- 
ment to  literature,  130. 

Ottoman  arms,  their  progress  in  the 
lower  empire,  404. 

Ovid,  the  effeminate  character  of  his 
poetry,  15. 

Oxford,  its  state  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, 209. 

Oxford,  favour  shown  to  this  city  by 
king  Henry  lieauclerc,  Henry  II.,  &c., 
2n  i,  u'n:,  ;  general  condition  of  its 
university  in  the  twelth  century,  205. 

PACHYMER,  George,  account  of,  396. 

Painting,  state  of,  in  the  twelth  century, 
219. 

Palamas,  his  controversy  with  Itarlaam, 
about  the  position  of  the  Celestial 
li;:lit  of  the  soul,  403. 

I'ahroloffus,  Andronicus,  contemporary 
commendations  of  him,  398  ;  bis  en- 
couragement of  literature,  399. 

Pala-ologus,  Michael,  mention  of  his 
reign,  397. 

Pallium,  account  of  the,  181  ;  necessity 
on  the  part  of  the  metropolitan 
II  II 


466 


INDEX. 


bishops  to  proceed  to  Rome  to  be  in- 
vested with  it,  182  ;  an  exception  to 
this  rule  described,  ib. 
Panetius,  the  Stoic  pliilosopher,  opens  a 

school  at  Koine,  53. 

Papacy,  Roman,  wisdom  of  its  constitu- 
tion, 320. 

Papal  abuses,  their  early  and  extensive 
development,  184 ;  commencement  of 
the  efforts  to  reform  them,  fi. 
Papal  legates,  the  beneficial  effect  on 
civilization   and   literature,  of  their 
various  progresses,  183. 
Paper,  in  use  among  the  Arabians  in  the 

eighth  century,  438. 
Paraclete,  founded  by  Abailard,  195; 

transferred  to  Heloisa,  196. 
Paris,  foundation  of  its  university,  238. 
Paris,  Matthew,  the  monk  of  St.  Albans, 
account  of  him,   2GO  ;    and  of  his 
writings,  2C1. 

Pausanius  characterized,  57. 
Peckham,  John,  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, mention  of,  251. 
People,  the,  the  best  judges  of  eloquence, 

14. 

Persian  war,  in  the  time  of  Heraclius, 
its  effects  upon  literature  and  the  arts, 
357. 
Peter,  a  monk,  undergoes  the  trial  by 

ordeal,  177. 
Peter  of  JJlois,  account  of  him,  214  ;  his 

letters  characterized,  215. 
Peter  Lombard,  his  Master  of  Sentences, 

200;  account  of  the  book,  ib. 
Peter  the  Venerable,  conveys  the  body 
of  Abailard  to  Paraclete,  and  delivers 
an  oration  over  it,  199  ;  his  epitaph 
on  Abailard,  ib.;  characterized,  ib. 
Petrarch,  account  of  him,  281  ;  his  dis- 
coveries  of  classic  works,    287;    his 
criticism  on  Homer,  288 ;   enduring 
perfection  of  his  style,  307. 
Phidias,  account  of  his  statue  of  Jupiter, 

52. 
Philology,     Arabian,     remarks    upon, 

423. 
Philosophers,  Arabian,  account  of  some 

of  the  most  eminent,  426. 
Philosophers,   Roman,   a  circumstance 
which  drew  upon  them  the  persecu- 
tion of  the  emperors,  33. 
Philosophy,  its  position  among  the  Ro- 
mans, 33  ;  its  condition  in  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  centuries,  157;   greatly 
pursued  by  the  Arabians,  42G. 


Photius,   patriarch   of   Constantinople, 
account  of,  366  ;  his  Myriobibhn,  3ti9. 
'.  Phranzes,  George,  account  of,  410. 
•  Pilatus,  Leo,  account  of  him,  29. 
Planudes,  Maximus,  account  of  him,  405. 
Plato,  use  made  of  his  writings  by  the 

Asiatic  monks,  353. 

Platonics  New,  account  of  this  sect,  59. 
Pliny,   character  of   his  panegyric    of 
Trajan,  18;  his  reference  to  the  de- 
cline of  the  Roman  taste  for  public 
reading  in  his  time,  23  ;  his  Natural 
History,  33  ;  his  death,  ib. 
Pliny  the  Younger,  character  of  his  Epis- 
tles, 19  ;  defects  of  his  style,  ib.;  his 
establishment  of  a  public  school  at 
Como,  40. 
Plotinus,  an  eminent  new  Platonician, 

59. 

Plutarch,  characterized,  57. 
Poetry,  its  decline  after  the  Augustan 
age,  20  ;  English,  rise  and  progress 
of,  268 ;  Mediaeval  Latin,  applied  to 
all  purposes,  221 ;  characterized,  222. 
Poets,  Arabian,  number  and  merits  of, 

420  ;  remarks  upon,  421. 
Poets,   modem  Lathi,   criticisms  upon 

several,  271. 
Poets,   monkish,    criticism   upon,    156; 

specimens  of  their  productions,  ib. 
Pollio,  Asinius,  opens  the   first  public 
library  in  Rome,  1 5  ;  the  share  he  had 
in  vitiating  the  popular  taste  as  to 
eloquence,  ib.;  characterized  by  Quin- 
tiliau,  ib.;  forms  the  first  public  library 
at  Rome,  36. 
Polycraticon,  the,  by  John  of  Salisbury, 

account  of,  213. 
Polybius,  commendation  of  his  history, 

53. 

Popes  of  Rome,  their  encouragement  of 
ecclesiastical  arcliitecture,  219  ;  the 
favourable  nature  of  their  position 
with  reference  to  the  encouragement 
of  literature,  235  ;  bad  effects  of  their 
political  ambition  upon  the  cause  of 
learning,  237  ;  their  learning  and 
patronage  of  letters  as  a  general  rule, 
321. 

Porphyry,  mention  of,  59. 
Premontre,  monks  of,  their  cultivation 

of  literature,  185. 
Principalities,  new,  establishment  of,  in 

Europe,  146. 

Priscian,  mention  of  him  and  of  liis- 
works,  71. 


INDEX. 


Printing,  art  of,  discovered,  341. 

Procopius,  mention  oi'  his  works,  354. 

Profane  literature,  cultivated  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  by  the  monks,  229. 

Provenfal,  the  first  of  modern  lan- 
guage* applied  to  literary  purposes, 
236. 

Provencal  language,  described,  226; 
importance  to  intellectual  progress  of 
the  first  productions  in,  ib. 

Provinces,  the  Roman,  encouragement 
of  the  fine  arts  and  literature  among 
them,  40. 

Provincials,  a  list  of  some  distinguished, 
41. 

Psellus,  "  the  Prince  of  ,•  Philosopher?," 
account  of,  378. 

Pulleyn,  Uobert,  cardinal,  his  exertions 
in  favour  of  Oxford  University,  204. 

,>RIVICM,  mention  of  the,  90. 

Quintilian,  liis  character  of  Asinius 
Pollio,  15;  his  observations  upon 
elocution,  16  ;  character  of  his  decla- 
mations, 1 7  ;  his  character  of  Seneca, 
17  ;  character  of  his  Institutions,  ib.; 
his  opinion  of  Lucan,  20  ;  his  high 
opinion  of  the  Latin  historians,  27. 

Quintus  Curtius  characterized,  31. 

RAVENNA,  mention  of  the  first  and  last 

exarch  of,  77. 
Ravenna,  exarchate  of,   made  over  to 

the  pope,  85. 
Reading,  public,  decline  of  a  taste  for,  on 

the  part  of  the  Romans,  2-". 
Realists,  their  doctrine,  193. 
Reformation  of  the  church,  dawn  of, 

."!'!;  progress  of,  317. 
Religiou-  -i-'-i-,  position  of,  in  the  time  of 

ininn,  .'!.•>•_'. 
Rhetoric,  observations  upon  the  state  of, 

in  the  thirteenth  century,  275. 
Rhyming,  account  of  its  rise  and  pro- 
Richard  I.,  of  England,  his  predilection 

for  Oxford. 

Robert  of  Gloucester,  his  poetical  his- 
tory of  England,  2<i!i. 
Rollo  of  Normandy,  his   invasion   and 

occupation  of  Normandy,  15:1. 
Roman  dc  la  Rose,  mention  of,  309. 
Roman    letter-   and   arts,  dtelini-  of,:.; 

cause   of   this   decline,   ib.;    circum- 

stan  ccs  which  had  led  to  their  rise,  Hi. 
Romn  ne,  or  Romance  language,  account 


of,  227 ;  general  diffusion  of  the 
French  Jiomaae  dialect, 

Romans,  acquire  a  literary  taste,  1 ; 
their  conduct  in  their  conquests,  4  ; 
their  indifference  towards  philosophy, 
34  ;  the  ancient,  their  indifference  to 
the  arts,  37;  their  subsequent  acqui- 
sition of  works  of  art  by  foreign  con- 
quests, ib. 

Roman  and  Greek  churches,  attempts  to 
unite,  406;  differences  between  them, 
407 ;  discussion  respecting,  at  the 
council  of  Florence,  ib. 

Rome,  the  period  of  her  intellectual  per~ 
fection,  3;  her  enlightened  policy,  i/i.; 
beneficial  effects  of  her  conquests,!'//.; 
superiority  of  her  civilization  to  that  of 
Carthage,  -i ;  taken  by  Totila,  75 ;  state 
of  its  learning  in  the  time  of  pope 
Agatho,  82,  and  under  Paul  I.,  ib.; 
low  state  of  literature  and  morals 
iu,  the  9th  and  10th  centuries,  124 : 
the  visits  paid  to  that  city  by  foreign 
prelates,  productive  of  good,  181 ; 
the  intercourse  with,  opened  the  eyes 
of  the  world  to  papal  abuses,  1S4; 
literary  condition  of,  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  15th  century,  340. 

SAIIAL,  Abraham  Ibn,  account  of,  4.12. 

Salerno,  early  celebrity  of  its  medical 
schools,  l.~i*. 

Saville,  Henry,  his  character  of  William 
of  Mahnsbury,  207. 

Saxon  language,  observations  upon  its 
duration,  2 o  4. 

Saxons,  their  conquest  of  England,  64. 

Scholastic  theology  of  the  middle  ages, 
account  of,  190. 

Schools,  medi;eva!,  mention  of  the 
works  read  in  them,  !i". 

firrii>t»riu»i,  the,  described,  129. 

Scylit7.es,  John,  churacteri/.i'd,  380. 

Sectarian  spirit,  its  antagonism  to  intel- 
lectual diffusion,  :;:>•_'. 

Seneca,  the  philosopher,  criticism  upon, 

Seneca,  the  rhetorician,  character  of  his 

declamations,  17. 
Sidonius   A]K>llinari.s,  account  of  him, 

42;    his  works  characterized.  Hi.;  is 

nominated  bishop  of  Auvergne,  I  ;  ; 

his  death,  H>. 

Silius  Jtalicus  cliaracterixed,  21!. 
Simocatta,  Theophylact,  his  history  of 

the  emperor  .Maurice, 


468 


INDEX. 


Singing,  an  important  feature  of  eccle- 
siastical education  in  England,  93. 

Sophists,  the  Grecian,  at  Rome,  charac- 
terized, 19. 

Spain,  state  of,  under  the  Gothic  kings, 
87  ;  conquered  by  the  Moors,  416. 

Spanish  language,  its  formation,  230. 

Statius  characterized,  22 ;  mention  of 
him  by  Juvenal,  i!>. 

Stigand,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  his 
extreme  want  of  learning,  165. 

Stobams,  his  anthology,  375. 

Stoic  pliilosophy,  the,  chiefly  adopted  at 
Rome,  33. 

St.  Sophia,  mosque  of,  its  erection,  356  ; 
criticisms  upon,  ib. 

Suetonius,  his  lives  of  the  twelve  Caesars, 
characterized,  26. 

Suidas,  his  Lexicon,  374. 

Sulpicius  Severus.  characterized,  50. 

Sylla,  Cornelius,  forms  the  first  library 
at  Rome,  35. 

Sylvester  II.,  pope,  account  of  him,  135  ; 
extracts  from  his  letters,  139;  his 
epitaph  upon  Boetius,  144. 

Symmachus,  Aurelius,  characterized,  20; 
mention  of  him,  72. 

Syncellus,  George,  his  chronicle  charac- ' 
terized,  364. 

TACITUS,  his  account  of  the  conduct  of 
the  Romans  in  their  conquests,  4 ; 
characterized,  27;  defects  of,  29;  his 
inaccuracies,  30;  difficulty  of  trans- 
lating him,  30. 

Tertullian,  observation  on  his  style,  48. 

Theodoric  the  Ostrogoth,  founds  the 
Gothic  dynasty  in  Italy,  62  ;  his  en- 
lightened policy,  69 ;  his  patronage 
of  learning,  70 ;  his  deference  for 
the  priesthood,  ib.;  his  care  for  the 
arts,  74. 

Theodore,  a  Cilician,  appointed  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  02  ;  his  great 
efforts  to  raise  the  intellectual  charac- 
ter of  England, i b. 

Theodorus  Studites,  characterized,  365. 

Theological  philosophizing,  latitude  to 
which  it  was  carried  by  Abailard  and 
his  pupils,  201. 

Theological  controversies  of  the  middle 
ages,  their  effect  on  profane  litera- 
ture, 351. 

Theological  controversies,  their  subtlety, 
357. 

Tiraboschi,  eulogium  upon  his  history 


of  Italian  literature,  C  ;  the  arrange- 
ment of  his  work,  ib.;  his  criticism 
on  Lucan,  21;  his  criticism  upon 
Claudian,  24;  his  observations  upon 
the  decline  of  history  in  Italy,  25. 

Titus,  the  emperor,  characterized,  6. 

Toledo,  synods  held  at,  in  the  seventh 
century,  89. 

Totila  takes  Rome,  7ti. 

Trajan,  the  emperor,  his  patronage  of 
literature,  0  ;  and  of  the  arts,  39. 

Tribonian,  Ids  great  learning,  353;  his 
collection  of  laws  written  first  in 
Latin,  354. 

Trivium,  mention  of  the,  98. 

Troubadours,  account  of  the,  227 ; 
nature  of  their  productions,  ib.;  value 
of  those  productions  to  history,  228. 

Trouveurs  and  Troubadours,  their  sys- 
tematic attacks  upon  the  religious 
orders,  229. 

Trouveurs,  account  of  the,  227  ;  nature 
of  their  productions,  ib.;  value  of  these 
productions  to  history,  228;  their 
obligations  to  the  early  literature  of 
the  British,  230. 

Turketul,  abbot  of  Croyland,  account  of 
him,  170. 

Turpin,  archbishop,  his  romance  the 
groundwork  of  most  of  the  heroic  fic- 
tions of  the  middle  ages,  230. 

Tzetzes,  John,  account  of  him,  389. 

UNION,  act  of,  between  the  Greek  and 

Roman  churches  signed,  408. 
Unirersali,  mention  of  the  question  of, 

192. 
Universities  derived  their  original  from 

the  school  of  Bee,  162  ;  rise  of,  238  ; 

studies  pursued  in  them,  239. 


VATACES,  John  Ducas,  emperor,  his  be- 
neficial reign,  395. 

Valentinian,  the  emperor,  characterized, 
11  ;  his  encouragement  of  litera- 
ture, ib. 

Valerius  Maximus  characterized,  26. 

Valerius  Flaccus  characterized,  22. 

Valleius  Paterculus  characterized,  26. 

Vatican,  library  of,  greatly  enlarged  by 
Nicholas  V.,  320. 

Virgil  reprehended  for  disparaging  the 
arts,  2. 

Virtue,  the  truest,  subsists  in  cultivated 
minds,  177. 


INDEX. 


469 


Voragine,  Giacomo  da,  his   Golden  Le-  \ 
gend,  259. 

WALLIS,  JOHN,  mention  of,  251. 

Walter,  canon  of  St.  Victor,  his  Treatise 
against  the  Four  Labyrinths  of  France, 
201. 

Warnfrid,  Paul,  his  account  of  the 
Lombards,  78;  account  of  him,  108. 

Warton,  Thomas,  his  opinion  of  the 
intellectual  advantages  to  the  middle 
ages  of  monasteries,  I(i7  ;  his  observa- 
tions upon  the  English  and  Saxon 
tongues,  2i;-'p. 

Waynflete,  bishop,  mention  of,  339. 

Western  Empire,  its  close,  12. 

Wickliff,  account  of  him,  299. 


William  the  Conqueror,  the  severity  of 

his  character,  167  ;  his  endeavours  to 

suppress  the  English  language,  ib. 
William  of  Malmesbury,  his  account  of 

Venerable  Bede,  95  ;  account  of  him 

and  his  History,  206. 
William  of  Newburgh,  account  of  him 

and  his  History,  207  ;  his  honesty  as 

;t  writer,  ib. 
AVomen,  purity  of  language  preserved 

by  them,  411. 
Wykeham,  William,  account  of,  333. 

ZONARAS,  account  of  him,  384. 
Zoroaster,  a  prophecy  of  the  birth  of 

Christ  attributed  to  him,  384. 
Zosimus,  his  history  characterized,  57. 


THE    END. 


T.  C.  SaTill,  Printer,  4,  Chandos  Street,  Covent  Garden. 


-757^ 


A     000  692  677     8 


